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