Copyright (c) 1997 Todd C. Miller <Todd.Miller@courtesan.com>
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$OpenBSD: dirname.3,v 1.9 2000/04/18 03:01:25 aaron Exp $
$FreeBSD: head/lib/libc/gen/dirname.3 65294 2000-08-31 15:56:15Z des $
.Dd August 17, 1997 .Dt DIRNAME 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm dirname .Nd extract the directory portition of a pathname .Sh SYNOPSIS .Fd #include <libgen.h> .Ft char * .Fn dirname "const char *path" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn dirname function is the converse of .Xr basename 3 ; it returns a pointer to the parent directory of the pathname pointed to by .Ar path . Any trailing .Sq / characters are not counted as part of the directory name. If .Ar path is a null pointer, the empty string, or contains no .Sq / characters, .Fn dirname returns a pointer to the string .Qq . , signifying the current directory. .Sh RETURN VALUES On successful completion, .Fn dirname returns a pointer to the parent directory of .Ar path .
p If .Fn dirname fails, a null pointer is returned and the global variable .Va errno is set to indicate the error. .Sh ERRORS The following error codes may be set in .Va errno : l -tag -width Er t Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG The path component to be returned was larger than .Dv MAXPATHLEN . .El .Sh WARNINGS .Fn dirname returns a pointer to internal static storage space that will be overwritten by subsequent calls (each function has its own separate storage).
p Other vendor implementations of .Fn dirname may modify the contents of the string passed to .Fn dirname ; this should be taken into account when writing code which calls this function if portability is desired. .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr basename 1 , .Xr dirname 1 , .Xr basename 3 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn dirname function conforms to .St -xpg4.2 . .Sh HISTORY The .Fn dirname function first appeared in .Ox 2.2 . .Sh AUTHOR Todd C. Miller <Todd.Miller@courtesan.com>