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.\" 30.Dd August 17, 1997 31.Dt DIRNAME 3 32.Os 33.Sh NAME 34.Nm dirname 35.Nd extract the directory part of a pathname 36.Sh LIBRARY 37.Lb libc 38.Sh SYNOPSIS 39.In libgen.h 40.Ft char * 41.Fn dirname "const char *path" 42.Sh DESCRIPTION 43The 44.Fn dirname 45function 46is the converse of 47.Xr basename 3 ; 48it returns a pointer to the parent directory of the pathname pointed to by 49.Fa path . 50Any trailing 51.Sq \&/ 52characters are not counted as part of the directory 53name. 54If 55.Fa path 56is a null pointer, the empty string, or contains no 57.Sq \&/ 58characters, 59.Fn dirname 60returns a pointer to the string 61.Qq \&. , 62signifying the current directory. 63.Sh RETURN VALUES 64On successful completion, 65.Fn dirname 66returns a pointer to the parent directory of 67.Fa path . 68.Pp 69If 70.Fn dirname 71fails, a null pointer is returned and the global variable 72.Va errno 73is set to indicate the error. 74.Sh ERRORS 75The following error codes may be set in 76.Va errno : 77.Bl -tag -width Er 78.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG 79The path component to be returned was larger than 80.Dv MAXPATHLEN . 81.El 82.Sh WARNINGS 83The 84.Fn dirname 85function 86returns a pointer to internal static storage space that will be overwritten 87by subsequent calls (each function has its own separate storage). 88.Pp 89Other vendor implementations of 90.Fn dirname 91may modify the contents of the string passed to 92.Fn dirname ; 93this should be taken into account when writing code which calls this function 94if portability is desired. 95.Sh SEE ALSO 96.Xr basename 1 , 97.Xr dirname 1 , 98.Xr basename 3 99.Sh STANDARDS 100The 101.Fn dirname 102function conforms to 103.St -xpg4.2 . 104.Sh HISTORY 105The 106.Fn dirname 107function first appeared in 108.Ox 2.2 109and 110.Fx 4.2 . 111.Sh AUTHORS 112.An Todd C. Miller Aq Mt Todd.Miller@courtesan.com 113