April 18, 1994 BASENAME 1

### NAME

basename, dirname - return filename or directory portion of pathname

### SYNOPSIS

basename string [suffix] dirname string

### DESCRIPTION

basename deletes any prefix ending with the last slash `/' character present in string, and a suffix, if given. The resulting filename is written to the standard output. A non-existent suffix is ignored.

dirname deletes the filename portion, beginning with the last slash `/' character to the end of string, and writes the result to the standard output.

### EXIT STATUS

Both the basename and dirname utilities exit 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

### EXAMPLES

The following line sets the shell variable ```FOO` to ```/usr/bin`.

```FOO=`dirname``/usr/bin/trail``

### SEE ALSO

csh(1), sh(1), basename(3), dirname(3)

### STANDARDS

The basename and dirname utilities conform to IEEE Std 1003.2-1992 (``POSIX.2'') .