1.\" $NetBSD: basename.3,v 1.14 2008/05/10 22:39:40 christos Exp $ 2.\" 3.\" Copyright (c) 1997, 2002 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc. 4.\" All rights reserved. 5.\" 6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation 7.\" by Klaus Klein and Jason R. Thorpe. 8.\" 9.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 10.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 11.\" are met: 12.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 13.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 14.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 15.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 16.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 17.\" 18.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE NETBSD FOUNDATION, INC. AND CONTRIBUTORS 19.\" ``AS IS'' AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED 20.\" TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR 21.\" PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE FOUNDATION OR CONTRIBUTORS 22.\" BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR 23.\" CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF 24.\" SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS 25.\" INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN 26.\" CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) 27.\" ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE 28.\" POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. 29.\" 30.Dd May 10, 2008 31.Dt BASENAME 3 32.Os 33.Sh NAME 34.Nm basename 35.Nd return the last component of a pathname 36.Sh LIBRARY 37.Lb libc 38.Sh SYNOPSIS 39.In libgen.h 40.Ft char * 41.Fn basename "char *path" 42.Sh DESCRIPTION 43The 44.Fn basename 45function takes the pathname pointed to by 46.Ar path 47and returns a pointer to the final component of the pathname, 48deleting any trailing 49.Sq / 50characters. 51.Pp 52If 53.Ar path 54consists entirely of 55.Sq / 56characters, 57.Fn basename 58returns a pointer to the string 59.Dq / . 60.Pp 61If 62.Ar path 63is a null pointer or points to an empty string, 64.Fn basename 65returns a pointer to the string 66.Dq \&. . 67.Sh RETURN VALUES 68The 69.Fn basename 70function returns a pointer to the final component of 71.Ar path . 72.Sh SEE ALSO 73.Xr basename 1 , 74.Xr dirname 3 75.Sh STANDARDS 76.Bl -bullet -compact 77.It 78.St -xpg4.2 79.It 80.St -p1003.1-2001 81.El 82.Sh BUGS 83If the length of the result is longer than 84.Dv PATH_MAX 85bytes 86.Pq including the terminating nul , 87the result will be truncated. 88.Pp 89The 90.Fn basename 91function returns a pointer to static storage that may be overwritten 92by subsequent calls to 93.Fn basename . 94This is not strictly a bug; it is explicitly allowed by 95.St -p1003.1-2001 . 96