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

NAME

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

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <libgen.h>

     char *
     dirname(char *path);

DESCRIPTION

     The dirname() function takes a pointer to a character string that contains a pathname, path, and returns a pointer to a string that is a
     pathname of the parent directory of path.	Trailing '/' characters in 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.

SEE ALSO

     dirname(1), basename(3)

STANDARDS

     o	 X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4, Version 2 (``XPG4.2'')
     o	 IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (``POSIX.1'')

BUGS

     If the length of the result is longer than PATH_MAX bytes (including the terminating nul), the result will be truncated.

     The dirname() function returns a pointer to static storage that may be overwritten by subsequent calls to dirname().  This is not strictly a
     bug; it is explicitly allowed by IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (``POSIX.1'').

BSD
								   May 10, 2008 							       BSD