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);

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.

     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.

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.

AUTHORS

     Todd C. Miller

BSD
								 October 12, 2006							       BSD