1BASENAME(3P)               POSIX Programmer's Manual              BASENAME(3P)
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6       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
7       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the  corresponding
8       Linux  manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
9       not be implemented on Linux.
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11

NAME

13       basename — return the last component of a pathname
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SYNOPSIS

16       #include <libgen.h>
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18       char *basename(char *path);
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DESCRIPTION

21       The basename() function shall take the pathname pointed to by path  and
22       return  a  pointer to the final component of the pathname, deleting any
23       trailing '/' characters.
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25       If the string pointed to by path consists entirely of the  '/'  charac‐
26       ter,  basename()  shall  return  a  pointer  to the string "/".  If the
27       string pointed to by path is exactly "//", it is implementation-defined
28       whether '/' or "//" is returned.
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30       If  path  is  a  null  pointer or points to an empty string, basename()
31       shall return a pointer to the string ".".
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33       The basename() function may modify the string pointed to by  path,  and
34       may return a pointer to internal storage. The returned pointer might be
35       invalidated or the storage might be overwritten by a subsequent call to
36       basename().
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38       The basename() function need not be thread-safe.
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RETURN VALUE

41       The  basename()  function shall return a pointer to the final component
42       of path.
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ERRORS

45       No errors are defined.
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47       The following sections are informative.
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EXAMPLES

50   Using basename()
51       The following program fragment returns a  pointer  to  the  value  lib,
52       which is the base name of /usr/lib.
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54           #include <libgen.h>
55           ...
56           char *name = "/usr/lib";
57           char *base;
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59           base = basename(name);
60           ...
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62   Sample Input and Output Strings for basename()
63       In  the  following  table,  the input string is the value pointed to by
64       path, and the output string is the return value of the basename() func‐
65       tion.
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67                          ┌───────────────┬───────────────┐
68                          │ Input String  │ Output String │
69                          ├───────────────┼───────────────┤
70                          │"/usr/lib"     │ "lib"         │
71                          │"/usr/"        │ "usr"         │
72                          │"/"            │ "/"           │
73                          │"///"          │ "/"           │
74                          │"//usr//lib//" │ "lib"         │
75                          └───────────────┴───────────────┘

APPLICATION USAGE

77       None.
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RATIONALE

80       None.
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FUTURE DIRECTIONS

83       None.
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SEE ALSO

86       dirname()
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88       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <libgen.h>
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90       The Shell and Utilities volume of POSIX.1‐2008, basename
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93       Portions  of  this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
94       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
95       --  Portable  Operating  System  Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
96       Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri‐
97       cal  and  Electronics  Engineers,  Inc  and  The  Open Group.  (This is
98       POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum  1  applied.)  In  the
99       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
100       The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group  Standard
101       is  the  referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
102       at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
103
104       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear  in  this  page  are
105       most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
106       files to man page format. To report such errors,  see  https://www.ker‐
107       nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
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111IEEE/The Open Group                  2013                         BASENAME(3P)
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