NAME

basename — extract the base portion of a pathname

SYNOPSIS

#include <libgen.h>

char *
basename(const 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. 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.

The basename_r() variation accepts a buffer of at least MAXPATHLEN bytes in which to store the resulting component.

IMPLEMENTATION NOTES

The basename() function returns a pointer to internal storage space allocated on the first call that will be overwritten by subsequent calls.

Other vendor implementations of basename() may store their result in the input buffer, making it safe to use in multithreaded applications. Future versions of FreeBSD will follow this approach as well. basename_r() will then become obsolete.

RETURN VALUES

On successful completion, basename() and basename_r() return pointers 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

basename(1), dirname(1), dirname(3)

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.

AUTHORS

Todd C. Miller

CAVEATS

basename() returns a pointer to internal static storage space that will be overwritten by subsequent calls.

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.