basename(3C) Standard C Library Functions basename(3C)
NAME
basename - return the last element of a path name
SYNOPSIS
#include <libgen.h>
char *basename(char *path);
DESCRIPTION
The basename() function takes the pathname pointed to by path and returns a pointer to the final component of the pathname, deleting any
trailing '/' characters.
If the string consists entirely of the '/' character, basename() returns a pointer to the string "/" .
If path is a null pointer or points to an empty string, basename() returns a pointer to the string "." .
RETURN VALUES
The basename() function returns a pointer to the final component of path.
USAGE
The basename() function may modify the string pointed to by path, and may return a pointer to static storage that may then be overwritten
by a subsequent call to basename().
When compiling multithreaded applications, the _REENTRANT flag must be defined on the compile line. This flag should only be used in mul-
tithreaded applications.
EXAMPLES
Example 1 Examples for Input String and Output String
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| Input String | Output String |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|"/usr/lib" |"lib" |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|"/usr/" |"usr" |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|"/" |"/" |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
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), dirname(3C), attributes(5), standards(5)
SunOS 5.11 24 Jul 2002 basename(3C)
