NAME

basename - return the last component of a pathname

LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS



char * basename(char *path)

DESCRIPTION

The basename() function takes the pathname pointed to by path and returns a pointer to the final component of the pathname, deleting any trailing `/' characters.

If path consists entirely of `/' characters, basename() returns a pointer to the string ``/''.

If path is a null pointer or points to an empty string, basename() returns a pointer to the string ``.''.

RETURN VALUES

The basename() function returns a pointer to the final component of path.

SEE ALSO

basename(1), dirname(3)

STANDARDS

BUGS

If the length of the result is longer than PATH_MAX bytes (including the terminating nul), the result will be truncated.

The basename() function returns a pointer to static storage that may be overwritten by subsequent calls to basename(). This is not strictly a bug; it is explicitly allowed by IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 (``POSIX.1'') .