dirname - report the parent directory name of a file pathname
#include <libgen.h> char *dirname(char *path);
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 "." .
This interface need not be reentrant.
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.The dirname() function may modify the string pointed to by path, and may return a pointer to static storage that may then be overwritten by subsequent calls to dirname().
No errors are defined.
Input String Output String "/usr/lib" "/usr" "/usr/" "/" "usr" "." "/" "/" "." "." ".." "." The following code fragment reads a pathname, changes the current working directory to the parent directory, 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);
The dirname() and basename() functions together yield a complete pathname. The expression dirname(path) obtains the pathname of the directory where basename(path) is found.
None.
basename(), <libgen.h>.