path = /first/second/third/fourth. i want to extract /first/second/third from path.my program something like this ....

path=/first/second/third/fourth
noc=`echo $path|tr '/' '\n'|wc -w`
var='echo $noc|cut -d'/' -f 1-$noc --> is giving error.

why $noc is not working here.any other alternative to extract it.

Thanks
kcp_pavan

% path=/first/second/third/fourth 
% printf '%s\n' "${path%/*}"
/first/second/third
% printf '%s\n' "${path##*/}"
fourth

Hummmm ... you translate "/" in "\n" and after you want to "cut" with the "/" as delimiter ...

Try this :

$ path=/first/second/third/fourth
$ var=$(dirname $path)
$ echo $var
/first/second/third

both soultions worked effectively. thanks to Goldorakk and radoulov .......

one more sol :
------------------
path=/first/second/third/fourth

echo $path | nawk '{print $NF}' FS="/" | read FILE
echo "File Name: "$FILE --> fourth

echo ${path%/*} | read PAT
echo "Path: "$PAT --> /first/second/third