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DIRNAME(3) FreeBSD Library Functions Manual DIRNAME(3) NAME dirname - extract the directory portion of a pathname SYNOPSIS #include <libgen.h> char * dirname(char *path); DESCRIPTION The dirname() function is the converse of basename(3); it returns a pointer to the parent directory of the pathname pointed to by path. Any trailing `/' characters are not counted as part of the directory name. If path is a null pointer, the empty string, or contains no `/' characters, dirname() returns a pointer to the string ".", signifying the current directory. RETURN VALUES On successful completion, dirname() returns a pointer to the parent directory of path. If dirname() fails, a null pointer is returned and the global variable errno is set to indicate the error. ERRORS The following error codes may be set in errno: [ENAMETOOLONG] The path component to be returned was larger than PATH_MAX. SEE ALSO basename(1), dirname(1), basename(3) STANDARDS The dirname() function conforms to the X/Open System Interfaces option of the IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 ("POSIX.1") specification. HISTORY The dirname() function first appeared in OpenBSD 2.2. AUTHORS Todd C. Miller CAVEATS dirname() returns a pointer to internal static storage space that will be overwritten by subsequent calls. Other vendor implementations of dirname() may modify the contents of the string passed to dirname(); this should be taken into account when writing code which calls this function if portability is desired. FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8 October 20, 2020 FreeBSD 14.1-RELEASE-p8