dirname(3c) - osol9

1dirname(3C)              Standard C Library Functions              dirname(3C)
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NAME

6       dirname - report the parent directory name of a file path name
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SYNOPSIS

9       #include <libgen.h>
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11       char *dirname(char *path);
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DESCRIPTION

15       The  dirname() function takes a pointer to a character string that con‐
16       tains a pathname, and returns a pointer to a string that is a  pathname
17       of  the  parent directory of that file.  Trailing '/' characters in the
18       path are not counted as part of the path.
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21       If path does not contain a '/', then dirname() returns a pointer to the
22       string  "."  .  If path is a null pointer or points to an empty string,
23       dirname() returns a pointer to the string "." .
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RETURN VALUES

26       The dirname() function returns a pointer to a string that is the parent
27       directory  of  path.  If  path  is a null pointer or points to an empty
28       string, a pointer to a string "." is returned.
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ERRORS

31       No errors are defined.
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EXAMPLES

34       Example 1 Changing the Current Directory to the Parent Directory.
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37       The following code fragment reads a pathname, changes the current work‐
38       ing directory to the parent directory of the named file (see chdir(2)),
39       and opens the file.
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42         char path[[MAXPATHLEN], *pathcopy;
43         int fd;
44         fgets(path, MAXPATHLEN, stdin);
45         pathcopy = strdup(path);
46         chdir(dirname(pathcopy));
47         fd = open(basename(path), O_RDONLY);
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50       Example 2 Sample Input and Output Strings for dirname().
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53       In the following table, the input string is the  value  pointed  to  by
54       path,  and the output string is the return value of the dirname() func‐
55       tion.
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61       ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
62       │       Input String          │       Output String         │
63       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
64       │"/usr/lib""                  │"/usr"                       │
65       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
66       │"/usr/"                      │"/"                          │
67       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
68       │"usr"                        │"/"                          │
69       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
70       │"/"                          │"/"                          │
71       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
72       │"."                          │"."                          │
73       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
74       │".."                         │"."                          │
75       └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
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USAGE

78       The dirname() function modifies the string pointed to by path.
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81       The dirname() and basename(3C)  functions  together  yield  a  complete
82       pathname.   The  expression  dirname(path)  obtains the pathname of the
83       directory where basename(path) is found.
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ATTRIBUTES

86       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
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91       ┌─────────────────────────────┬─────────────────────────────┐
92       │      ATTRIBUTE TYPE         │      ATTRIBUTE VALUE        │
93       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
94       │Interface Stability          │Standard                     │
95       ├─────────────────────────────┼─────────────────────────────┤
96       │MT-Level                     │MT-Safe                      │
97       └─────────────────────────────┴─────────────────────────────┘
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