BASENAME(3)                    Library Routines                    BASENAME(3)

NAME

       basename, dirname - get components of a pathname

SYNOPSIS

       #include <unistd.h>

       char *basename (const char *path);
       char *dirname (const char *path);

DESCRIPTION

       basename returns a pointer to the file component of path.  If path ends
       with a directory separator, then basename returns an empty string.

       dirname returns a pointer to an internal buffer containing  the  direc‐
       tory  component  of  path,  without a trailing directory separator.  If
       path ends with a directory separator, then that character is  the  only
       part of path not included in the resultant string.  If path contains no
       directory separator, then the string "." is returned.  If path is NULL,
       an empty string is returned.

       Unlike ExpandPathGS(2), dirname does not expand any GS/OS prefixes that
       may be present in path.

       Under GS/OS, permissable directory separators are :  and  /,  with  the
       former taking precedence.

COMPATIBILITY

       basename is thread-safe; dirname is not.

BUGS

       If  path is longer than PATH_MAX characters, dirname will only consider
       the first PATH_MAX-1 characters.

AUTHOR

       Devin Reade <gdr@gno.org>




GNO                              29 March 1998                     BASENAME(3)