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Manual Reference Pages  - BASENAME (P)

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basename - return the last component of a pathname

CONTENTS

Synopsis
Description
Return Value
Errors
Examples
     Using basename()
     Sample Input and Output Strings for basename()
Application Usage
Rationale
Future Directions
See Also
Copyright

#include <libgen.h>

char *basename(char *path);

The basename() function shall take the pathname pointed to by path and return a pointer to the final component of the pathname, deleting any trailing ’/’ characters.

If the string consists entirely of the ’/’ character, basename() shall return a pointer to the string "/" . If the string is exactly "//" , it is implementation-defined whether ’/’ or "//" is returned.

If path is a null pointer or points to an empty string, basename() shall return a pointer to the string "." .

The basename() function may modify the string pointed to by path, and may return a pointer to static storage that may then be overwritten by a subsequent call to basename().

The basename() function need not be reentrant. A function that is not required to be reentrant is not required to be thread-safe.

The basename() function shall return a pointer to the final component of path.

No errors are defined.

The following sections are informative.

The following program fragment returns a pointer to the value lib, which is the base name of /usr/lib.

#include <libgen.h>
...
char *name = "/usr/lib";
char *base;



base = basename(name);
...

In the following table, the input string is the value pointed to by path, and the output string is the return value of the basename() function.

Input String	Output String
"/usr/lib"	"lib"
"/usr/"	"usr"
"/"	"/"
"///"	"/"
"//usr//lib//"	"lib"

None.

None.

None.

dirname() , the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <libgen.h>, the Shell and Utilities volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, basename

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 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 .