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 1.9 2000/04/18 03:01:25 aaron Exp $ 28.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/gen/dirname.3,v 1.1.2.6 2003/03/15 15:11:05 trhodes Exp $ 29.\" $DragonFly: src/lib/libc/gen/dirname.3,v 1.2 2003/06/17 04:26:42 dillon Exp $ 30.\" 31.Dd August 17, 1997 32.Dt DIRNAME 3 33.Os 34.Sh NAME 35.Nm dirname 36.Nd extract the directory part of a pathname 37.Sh SYNOPSIS 38.In libgen.h 39.Ft char * 40.Fn dirname "const char *path" 41.Sh DESCRIPTION 42The 43.Fn dirname 44function 45is the converse of 46.Xr basename 3 ; 47it returns a pointer to the parent directory of the pathname pointed to by 48.Fa path . 49Any trailing 50.Sq \&/ 51characters are not counted as part of the directory 52name. 53If 54.Fa path 55is a null pointer, the empty string, or contains no 56.Sq \&/ 57characters, 58.Fn dirname 59returns a pointer to the string 60.Qq \&. , 61signifying the current directory. 62.Sh RETURN VALUES 63On successful completion, 64.Fn dirname 65returns a pointer to the parent directory of 66.Fa path . 67.Pp 68If 69.Fn dirname 70fails, a null pointer is returned and the global variable 71.Va errno 72is set to indicate the error. 73.Sh ERRORS 74The following error codes may be set in 75.Va errno : 76.Bl -tag -width Er 77.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG 78The path component to be returned was larger than 79.Dv MAXPATHLEN . 80.El 81.Sh WARNINGS 82The 83.Fn dirname 84function 85returns a pointer to internal static storage space that will be overwritten 86by subsequent calls (each function has its own separate storage). 87.Pp 88Other vendor implementations of 89.Fn dirname 90may modify the contents of the string passed to 91.Fn dirname ; 92this should be taken into account when writing code which calls this function 93if portability is desired. 94.Sh SEE ALSO 95.Xr basename 1 , 96.Xr dirname 1 , 97.Xr basename 3 98.Sh STANDARDS 99The 100.Fn dirname 101function conforms to 102.St -xpg4.2 . 103.Sh HISTORY 104The 105.Fn dirname 106function first appeared in 107.Ox 2.2 108and 109.Fx 4.2 . 110.Sh AUTHORS 111Todd C. Miller <Todd.Miller@courtesan.com> 112