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 1.3 2007/08/18 20:48:47 swildner 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 LIBRARY 38.Lb libc 39.Sh SYNOPSIS 40.In libgen.h 41.Ft char * 42.Fn dirname "const char *path" 43.Sh DESCRIPTION 44The 45.Fn dirname 46function 47is the converse of 48.Xr basename 3 ; 49it returns a pointer to the parent directory of the pathname pointed to by 50.Fa path . 51Any trailing 52.Sq \&/ 53characters are not counted as part of the directory 54name. 55If 56.Fa path 57is a null pointer, the empty string, or contains no 58.Sq \&/ 59characters, 60.Fn dirname 61returns a pointer to the string 62.Qq \&. , 63signifying the current directory. 64.Sh RETURN VALUES 65On successful completion, 66.Fn dirname 67returns a pointer to the parent directory of 68.Fa path . 69.Pp 70If 71.Fn dirname 72fails, a null pointer is returned and the global variable 73.Va errno 74is set to indicate the error. 75.Sh ERRORS 76The following error codes may be set in 77.Va errno : 78.Bl -tag -width Er 79.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG 80The path component to be returned was larger than 81.Dv MAXPATHLEN . 82.El 83.Sh WARNINGS 84The 85.Fn dirname 86function 87returns a pointer to internal static storage space that will be overwritten 88by subsequent calls (each function has its own separate storage). 89.Pp 90Other vendor implementations of 91.Fn dirname 92may modify the contents of the string passed to 93.Fn dirname ; 94this should be taken into account when writing code which calls this function 95if portability is desired. 96.Sh SEE ALSO 97.Xr basename 1 , 98.Xr dirname 1 , 99.Xr basename 3 100.Sh STANDARDS 101The 102.Fn dirname 103function conforms to 104.St -xpg4.2 . 105.Sh HISTORY 106The 107.Fn dirname 108function first appeared in 109.Ox 2.2 110and 111.Fx 4.2 . 112.Sh AUTHORS 113Todd C. Miller <Todd.Miller@courtesan.com> 114