dirname(1p) — Linux manual page

PROLOG | NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | OPTIONS | OPERANDS | STDIN | INPUT FILES | ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES | ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS | STDOUT | STDERR | OUTPUT FILES | EXTENDED DESCRIPTION | EXIT STATUS | CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS | APPLICATION USAGE | EXAMPLES | RATIONALE | FUTURE DIRECTIONS | SEE ALSO | COPYRIGHT

DIRNAME(1P)             POSIX Programmer's Manual            DIRNAME(1P)

PROLOG         top

       This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The
       Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the
       corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior),
       or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME         top

       dirname — return the directory portion of a pathname

SYNOPSIS         top

       dirname string

DESCRIPTION         top

       The string operand shall be treated as a pathname, as defined in
       the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 3.271,
       Pathname.  The string string shall be converted to the name of
       the directory containing the filename corresponding to the last
       pathname component in string, performing actions equivalent to
       the following steps in order:

        1. If string is //, skip steps 2 to 5.

        2. If string consists entirely of <slash> characters, string
           shall be set to a single <slash> character. In this case,
           skip steps 3 to 8.

        3. If there are any trailing <slash> characters in string, they
           shall be removed.

        4. If there are no <slash> characters remaining in string,
           string shall be set to a single <period> character. In this
           case, skip steps 5 to 8.

        5. If there are any trailing non-<slash> characters in string,
           they shall be removed.

        6. If the remaining string is //, it is implementation-defined
           whether steps 7 and 8 are skipped or processed.

        7. If there are any trailing <slash> characters in string, they
           shall be removed.

        8. If the remaining string is empty, string shall be set to a
           single <slash> character.

       The resulting string shall be written to standard output.

OPTIONS         top

       None.

OPERANDS         top

       The following operand shall be supported:

       string    A string.

STDIN         top

       Not used.

INPUT FILES         top

       None.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES         top

       The following environment variables shall affect the execution of
       dirname:

       LANG      Provide a default value for the internationalization
                 variables that are unset or null. (See the Base
                 Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 8.2,
                 Internationalization Variables for the precedence of
                 internationalization variables used to determine the
                 values of locale categories.)

       LC_ALL    If set to a non-empty string value, override the values
                 of all the other internationalization variables.

       LC_CTYPE  Determine the locale for the interpretation of
                 sequences of bytes of text data as characters (for
                 example, single-byte as opposed to multi-byte
                 characters in arguments).

       LC_MESSAGES
                 Determine the locale that should be used to affect the
                 format and contents of diagnostic messages written to
                 standard error.

       NLSPATH   Determine the location of message catalogs for the
                 processing of LC_MESSAGES.

ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS         top

       Default.

STDOUT         top

       The dirname utility shall write a line to the standard output in
       the following format:

           "%s\n", <resulting string>

STDERR         top

       The standard error shall be used only for diagnostic messages.

OUTPUT FILES         top

       None.

EXTENDED DESCRIPTION         top

       None.

EXIT STATUS         top

       The following exit values shall be returned:

        0    Successful completion.

       >0    An error occurred.

CONSEQUENCES OF ERRORS         top

       Default.

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE         top

       The definition of pathname specifies implementation-defined
       behavior for pathnames starting with two <slash> characters.
       Therefore, applications shall not arbitrarily add <slash>
       characters to the beginning of a pathname unless they can ensure
       that there are more or less than two or are prepared to deal with
       the implementation-defined consequences.

EXAMPLES         top

       The EXAMPLES section of the basename() function (see the System
       Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2017, basename(3p)) includes a table
       showing examples of the results of processing several sample
       pathnames by the basename() and dirname() functions and by the
       basename and dirname utilities.

       See also the examples for the basename utility.

RATIONALE         top

       The behaviors of basename and dirname in this volume of
       POSIX.1‐2017 have been coordinated so that when string is a valid
       pathname:

           $(basename -- "string")

       would be a valid filename for the file in the directory:

           $(dirname -- "string")

       This would not work for the versions of these utilities in early
       proposals due to the way processing of trailing <slash>
       characters was specified. Consideration was given to leaving
       processing unspecified if there were trailing <slash> characters,
       but this cannot be done; the Base Definitions volume of
       POSIX.1‐2017, Section 3.271, Pathname allows trailing <slash>
       characters. The basename and dirname utilities have to specify
       consistent handling for all valid pathnames.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS         top

       None.

SEE ALSO         top

       Section 2.5, Parameters and Variables, basename(1p)

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, Section 3.271,
       Pathname, Chapter 8, Environment Variables

       The System Interfaces volume of POSIX.1‐2017, basename(3p),
       dirname(3p)

COPYRIGHT         top

       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic
       form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information
       Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The
       Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright
       (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
       Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.  In the event of any
       discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The
       Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group
       Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be
       obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page
       are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of
       the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

IEEE/The Open Group               2017                       DIRNAME(1P)

Pages that refer to this page: basename(1p)dirname(3p)