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)