Name

basename, dirname - return filename or directory portion of pathname

Synopsis

basename string [suffix]
basename [-a] [-s suffix] string [...]
dirname string

Description

The basename utility deletes any prefix ending with the last slash `/' character present in string (after first stripping trailing slashes), and a suffix, if given. The suffix is not stripped if it is identical to the remaining characters in string. The resulting filename is written to the standard output. A non-existent suffix is ignored. If -a is specified, then every argument is treated as a string as if basename were invoked with just one argument. If -s is specified, then the suffix is taken as its argument, and all other arguments are treated as a string.

The dirname utility deletes the filename portion, beginning with the last slash `/' character to the end of string (after first stripping trailing slashes), and writes the result to the standard output.

Examples

The following line sets the shell variable FOO to /usr/bin.

FOO=`dirname /usr/bin/trail`

Diagnostics

The basename and dirname utilities exit 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

See Also

csh(1) , sh(1)

Standards

The basename and dirname utilities are expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') compatible.

Table of Contents

• Name
• Synopsis
• Description
• Examples
• Diagnostics
• See Also
• Standards