dirname(3) [mojave man page]

DIRNAME(3)						   BSD Library Functions Manual 						DIRNAME(3)

NAME

     dirname -- extract the directory part of a pathname

SYNOPSIS

     #include <libgen.h>

     char *
     dirname(char *path);

     char *
     dirname_r(const char *path, char *dname);

DESCRIPTION

     The dirname() function is the converse of basename(3); it returns a pointer to the parent directory of the pathname pointed to by path.  Any
     trailing '/' characters are not counted as part of the directory name.  If path is a null pointer, the empty string, or contains no '/' char-
     acters, dirname() returns a pointer to the string ".", signifying the current directory.

IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

     The dirname() function returns a pointer to internal storage space allocated on the first call that will be overwritten by subsequent calls.
     dirname_r() is therefore preferred for threaded applications.

     Other vendor implementations of dirname() may modify the contents of the string passed to dirname(); if portability is desired, this should
     be taken into account when writing code which calls this function.

LEGACY SYNOPSIS

     #include <libgen.h>

     char *
     dirname(const char *path);

     In legacy mode, path will not be changed.

RETURN VALUES

     On successful completion, dirname() returns a pointer to the parent directory of path.

     If dirname() fails, a null pointer is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

     The following error codes may be set in errno:

     [ENAMETOOLONG]	The path component to be returned was larger than MAXPATHLEN.

     [ENOMEM]		The static buffer used for storing the path in dirname() could not be allocated.

SEE ALSO

     basename(1), dirname(1), basename(3), compat(5)

STANDARDS

     The dirname() function conforms to X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4, Version 2 (``XPG4.2'').

HISTORY

     The dirname() function first appeared in OpenBSD 2.2 and FreeBSD 4.2.  The dirname_r() function first appeared in OS X 10.12.

AUTHORS

     Todd C. Miller

BSD
								 October 12, 2006							       BSD

dirname(3C)						   Standard C Library Functions 					       dirname(3C)

NAME

       dirname - report the parent directory name of a file path name

SYNOPSIS

       #include <libgen.h>

       char *dirname(char *path);

DESCRIPTION

       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 "." .

RETURN VALUES

       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.

ERRORS

       No errors are defined.

EXAMPLES

       Example 1 Changing the Current Directory to the Parent Directory.

       The following code fragment reads a pathname, changes the current working directory  to	the  parent  directory	of  the  named	file  (see
       chdir(2)), and opens the file.

	 char path[[MAXPATHLEN], *pathcopy;
	 int fd;
	 fgets(path, MAXPATHLEN, stdin);
	 pathcopy = strdup(path);
	 chdir(dirname(pathcopy));
	 fd = open(basename(path), O_RDONLY);

       Example 2 Sample Input and Output Strings for dirname().

       In  the following table, the input string is the value pointed to by path, and the output string is the return value of the dirname() func-
       tion.

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |       Input String	     |	     Output String	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |"/usr/lib""		     |"/usr"			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |"/usr/" 		     |"/"			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |"usr"			     |"/"			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |"/"			     |"/"			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |"."			     |"."			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |".."			     |"."			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

USAGE

       The dirname() function modifies the string pointed to by path.

       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.

ATTRIBUTES

       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |      ATTRIBUTE TYPE	     |	    ATTRIBUTE VALUE	   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |Interface Stability	     |Standard			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
       |MT-Level		     |MT-Safe			   |
       +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+

SEE ALSO

       basename(1), chdir(2), basename(3C), attributes(5), standards(5)

SunOS 5.11							    18 Mar 2002 						       dirname(3C)