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.Dd May 10, 2008 .Dt DIRNAME 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm dirname .Nd report the parent directory name of a file pathname .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS n libgen.h .Ft char * .Fn dirname "char *path" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn dirname function takes a pointer to a character string that contains a pathname, .Ar path , and returns a pointer to a string that is a pathname of the parent directory of .Ar path . Trailing .Sq / characters in .Ar path are not counted as part of the path.
p If .Ar path does not contain a .Sq / , then .Fn dirname returns a pointer to the string .Dq . .
p If .Ar path is a null pointer or points to an empty string, .Fn dirname returns a pointer to the string .Dq . . .Sh RETURN VALUES The .Fn dirname function returns a pointer to a string that is the parent directory of .Ar path . .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr dirname 1 , .Xr basename 3 .Sh STANDARDS l -bullet -compact t .St -xpg4.2 t .St -p1003.1-2001 .El .Sh BUGS If the length of the result is longer than .Dv PATH_MAX bytes
q including the terminating nul , the result will be truncated.
p The .Fn dirname function returns a pointer to static storage that may be overwritten by subsequent calls to .Fn dirname . This is not strictly a bug; it is explicitly allowed by .St -p1003.1-2001 .