NAME
basename – extract the base portion of a pathname
SYNOPSIS
#include <libgen.h>
char *
basename(char *path);
char *
basename_r(const char *path, char *bname);
DESCRIPTION
The basename() function returns the last component from the pathname pointed to by path, deleting any trailing ‘/’ characters.
The basename_r() variation accepts a buffer of at least MAXPATHLEN bytes in which to store the resulting component.
IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
This implementation of basename() returns a pointer to internal storage space allocated on the first call that will be overwritten by subsequent calls. basename_r() is therefore preferred for threaded applications. Other vendor implementations of basename() may modify the contents of the string passed to basename(); this should be taken into account when writing code which calls this function if portability is desired.
RETURN VALUES
If path consists entirely of ‘/’ characters, a pointer to the string "/" is returned. If path is a null pointer or the empty string, a pointer to the string "." is returned. Otherwise, they return a pointer to the last component of path.
If they fail, 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 MAXPATHLEN.
SEE ALSO
STANDARDS
The basename() function conforms to X/Open Portability Guide Issue 4, Version 2 (“XPG4.2”).
HISTORY
The basename() function first appeared in OpenBSD 2.2 and FreeBSD 4.2.
The basename_r() function first appeared in OS X 10.12.
AUTHORS
Nuxi, the Netherlands