DIRNAME(3) 1 DIRNAME(3)
dirname - Returns parent directory's path
SYNOPSIS
string dirname (string $path)
DESCRIPTION
Given a string containing the path of a file or directory, this function will return the parent directory's path.
PARAMETERS
o $path
- A path. On Windows, both slash ( /) and backslash ( ) are used as directory separator character. In other environments, it is
the forward slash ( /).
RETURN VALUES
Returns the path of the parent directory. If there are no slashes in $path, a dot (' .') is returned, indicating the current directory.
Otherwise, the returned string is $path with any trailing /component removed.
CHANGELOG
+--------+-------------------------------+
|Version | |
| | |
| | Description |
| | |
+--------+-------------------------------+
| 5.0.0 | |
| | |
| | dirname(3) is now binary safe |
| | |
+--------+-------------------------------+
EXAMPLES
Example #1
dirname(3) example
<?php
echo "1) " . dirname("/etc/passwd") . PHP_EOL; // 1) /etc
echo "2) " . dirname("/etc/") . PHP_EOL; // 2) / (or on Windows)
echo "3) " . dirname("."); // 3) .
?>
NOTES
Note
dirname(3) operates naively on the input string, and is not aware of the actual filesystem, or path components such as " ..".
Note
dirname(3) is locale aware, so for it to see the correct directory name with multibyte character paths, the matching locale must be
set using the setlocale(3) function.
Note
Since PHP 4.3.0, you will often get a slash or a dot back from dirname(3) in situations where the older functionality would have
given you the empty string.
Check the following change example:
<?php
//before PHP 4.3.0
dirname('c:/'); // returned '.'
//after PHP 4.3.0
dirname('c:/x'); // returns 'c:'
dirname('c:/Temp/x'); // returns 'c:/Temp'
dirname('/x'); // returns ''
?>
SEE ALSO
basename(3), pathinfo(3), realpath(3).
PHP Documentation Group DIRNAME(3)