dirname(3) [netbsd man page]

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

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