1.\" 2.\" Copyright (c) 1997 Todd C. Miller <Todd.Miller@courtesan.com> 3.\" All rights reserved. 4.\" 5.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 6.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 7.\" are met: 8.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 9.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 10.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 11.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 12.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 13.\" 3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products 14.\" derived from this software without specific prior written permission. 15.\" 16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, 17.\" INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY 18.\" AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL 19.\" THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, 20.\" EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, 21.\" PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; 22.\" OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, 23.\" WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR 24.\" OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF 25.\" ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. 26.\" 27.\" $OpenBSD: dirname.3,v 1.11 2001/08/06 10:42:25 mpech Exp $ 28.\" 29.Dd August 17, 1997 30.Dt DIRNAME 3 31.Os 32.Sh NAME 33.Nm dirname 34.Nd extract the directory portition of a pathname 35.Sh SYNOPSIS 36.Fd #include <libgen.h> 37.Ft char * 38.Fn dirname "const char *path" 39.Sh DESCRIPTION 40The 41.Fn dirname 42function is the converse of 43.Xr basename 3 ; 44it returns a pointer to the parent directory of the pathname pointed to by 45.Ar path . 46Any trailing 47.Sq \&/ 48characters are not counted as part of the directory 49name. 50If 51.Ar path 52is a null pointer, the empty string, or contains no 53.Sq \&/ 54characters, 55.Fn dirname 56returns a pointer to the string 57.Qq \&. , 58signifying the current directory. 59.Sh RETURN VALUES 60On successful completion, 61.Fn dirname 62returns a pointer to the parent directory of 63.Ar path . 64.Pp 65If 66.Fn dirname 67fails, a null pointer is returned and the global variable 68.Va errno 69is set to indicate the error. 70.Sh ERRORS 71The following error codes may be set in 72.Va errno : 73.Bl -tag -width Er 74.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG 75The path component to be returned was larger than 76.Dv MAXPATHLEN . 77.El 78.Sh WARNINGS 79.Fn dirname 80returns a pointer to internal static storage space that will be overwritten 81by subsequent calls (each function has its own separate storage). 82.Pp 83Other vendor implementations of 84.Fn dirname 85may modify the contents of the string passed to 86.Fn dirname ; 87this should be taken into account when writing code which calls this function 88if portability is desired. 89.Sh SEE ALSO 90.Xr basename 1 , 91.Xr dirname 1 , 92.Xr basename 3 93.Sh STANDARDS 94The 95.Fn dirname 96function conforms to 97.St -xpg4.2 . 98.Sh HISTORY 99The 100.Fn dirname 101function first appeared in 102.Ox 2.2 . 103.Sh AUTHORS 104Todd C. Miller <Todd.Miller@courtesan.com> 105