BASENAME(3P)                                        POSIX Programmer's Manual                                       BASENAME(3P)



PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (con-
       sult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the  interface  may  not  be  implemented  on
       Linux.

NAME
       basename - return the last component of a pathname

SYNOPSIS
       #include <libgen.h>

       char *basename(char *path);


DESCRIPTION
       The  basename()  function  shall  take the pathname pointed to by path and return a pointer to the final component of the
       pathname, deleting any trailing '/' characters.

       If the string consists entirely of the '/' character, basename() shall return a pointer to the string "/" . If the string
       is exactly "//", it is implementation-defined whether '/' or "//" is returned.

       If path is a null pointer or points to an empty string, basename() shall return a pointer to the string "." .

       The  basename()  function  may  modify the string pointed to by path, and may return a pointer to static storage that may
       then be overwritten by a subsequent call to basename().

       The basename() function need not be reentrant. A function that is not required to be reentrant  is  not  required  to  be
       thread-safe.

RETURN VALUE
       The basename() function shall return a pointer to the final component of path.

ERRORS
       No errors are defined.

       The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES
   Using basename()
       The following program fragment returns a pointer to the value lib, which is the base name of /usr/lib.


              #include <libgen.h>
              ...
              char *name = "/usr/lib";
              char *base;


              base = basename(name);
              ...

   Sample Input and Output Strings for basename()
       In  the  following  table, the input string is the value pointed to by path, and the output string is the return value of
       the basename() function.

                                                    Input String     Output String
                                                    "/usr/lib"       "lib"
                                                    "/usr/"          "usr"
                                                    "/"              "/"
                                                    "///"            "/"
                                                    "//usr//lib//"   "lib"

APPLICATION USAGE
       None.

RATIONALE
       None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       dirname(), the  Base  Definitions  volume  of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,  <libgen.h>,  the  Shell  and  Utilities  volume  of
       IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, basename

COPYRIGHT
       Portions  of  this  text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for
       Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6,  Copy-
       right (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any
       discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open  Group
       Standard   is   the   referee   document.   The   original   Standard   can   be   obtained  online  at  http://www.open-
       group.org/unix/online.html .



IEEE/The Open Group                                           2003                                                  BASENAME(3P)