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basename(1) General Commands Manual basename(1) NAME basename, dirname - Returns the base file name or directory portion of a path name SYNOPSIS basename string [suffix] dirname string STANDARDS Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry stan- dards as follows: basename: XPG4, XPG4-UNIX dirname: XPG4, XPG4-UNIX Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about in- dustry standards and associated tags. OPTIONS None OPERANDS A string to be evaluated. This string may be empty. A file name suf- fix to be deleted if found. This operand applies to the basename com- mand only, and is optional. DESCRIPTION The basename command reads the string specified on the command line, deletes the portion from the beginning to the last / (slash), and writes the base file name to standard output. If suffix is specified on the command line and suffix appears in string, the string is re- turned with the suffix removed. The dirname command reads the string specified on the command line, deletes from the last / (slash) to the end of the line, and writes the remaining path name to standard output. [DIGITAL] The basename and dirname commands are generally used inside command substitutions within a shell procedure to specify an output file name that is some variation of a specified input file name. For more information, see the csh(1), ksh(1), and sh(1b) or sh(1p) refer- ence pages. The following table demonstrates the processing applied to characters with particular meanings by the basename and dirname commands. l l l. _ basename dirname string Result Result _ / / / // / / /a/b b /a //a//b// b //a <null> err msg err msg a a . "" . /a a / /a/b b /a a/b b a _ NOTES It is not an error if suffix is not a part of string. EXAMPLES To display the base file name of a shell variable, enter: basename $WORKFILE This displays the base file name of the value assigned to the WORKFILE shell variable. If WORKFILE is set to /u/gabe/pro- gram.c, then program.c is displayed. To construct, in a shell script, a file name that is the same as another file name, ex- cept for its suffix, enter the following command, using grave accents: OFILE=`basename $1 .c`.o This assigns to OFILE the value of the first positional parame- ter ($1), but with its suffix changed to $1 is /u/jim/program.c, then OFILE becomes program.o. Because program.o is only a base file name, it identifies a file in the current directory. The grave accents perform command substitution. To construct the name of a file located in the same directory as another, en- ter the following command, using grave accents: AOUT- FILE=`dirname $TEXTFILE`/a.out This sets the AOUTFILE shell variable to the name of an a.out file that is in the same directory as TEXTFILE. If TEXTFILE is /u/fran/prog.c, then the value of dirname $TEXTFILE is /u/fran and AOUTFILE becomes /u/fran/a.out. ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES The following environment variables affect the execution of basename and dirname: Provides a default value for the internationalization variables that are unset or null. If LANG is unset or null, the corre- sponding value from the default locale is used. If any of the interna- tionalization variables contain an invalid setting, the utility behaves as if none of the variables had been defined. If set to a non-empty string value, overrides the values of all the other internationaliza- tion variables. Determines the locale for the interpretation of se- quences of bytes of text data as characters (for example, single-byte as opposed to multibyte characters in arguments). Determines the lo- cale for the format and contents of diagnostic messages written to standard error. Determines the location of message catalogues for the processing of LC_MESSAGES. SEE ALSO Commands: csh(1), ksh(1), Bourne shell sh(1b), POSIX shell sh(1p) Standards: standards(5) basename(1)