NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUES | ERRORS | EXAMPLES | USAGE | ATTRIBUTES | SEE ALSO
#include <libgen.h>char *dirname(char *path);
The dirname() function takes a pointer to a character string that contains a pathname, and returns a pointer to a string that is a pathname of the parent directory of that file. Trailing '/' characters in the path are not counted as part of the path.
If path does not contain a '/', then dirname() returns a pointer to the string "." . If path is a null pointer or points to an empty string, dirname() returns a pointer to the string "." .
The dirname() function returns a pointer to a string that is the parent directory of path. If path is a null pointer or points to an empty string, a pointer to a string "." is returned.
No errors are defined.
Input String | Output String |
---|---|
“/usr/lib"” | “/usr” |
“/usr/” | “/” |
“usr” | “/” |
“/” | “/” |
“.” | “.” |
“..” | “.” |
The following code fragment reads a path name, changes directory to the parent directory of the named file (see chdir(2)), and opens the file.
char path[100], *pathcopy; int fd; gets (path); pathcopy = strdup (path); chdir (dirname (pathcopy) ); free (pathcopy); fd = open (basename (path), O_RDONLY);
The dirname() function may modify the string pointed to by path, and may return a pointer to static storage that may then be overwritten by subsequent calls to dirname().
The dirname() and basename(3C) functions together yield a complete pathname. The expression dirname(path) obtains the pathname of the directory where basename(path) is found.
When compiling multithreaded applications, the _REENTRANT flag must be defined on the compile line. This flag should only be used in multithreaded applications.
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
---|---|
MT-Level | MT-Safe |
NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUES | ERRORS | EXAMPLES | USAGE | ATTRIBUTES | SEE ALSO