.\"	$NetBSD: dirname.3,v 1.11.30.1 2008/05/18 12:30:15 yamt Exp $
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.Dd May 10, 2008
.Dt DIRNAME 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm dirname
.Nd report the parent directory name of a file pathname
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libc
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In libgen.h
.Ft char *
.Fn dirname "char *path"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn dirname
function takes a pointer to a character string that contains a pathname,
.Ar path ,
and returns a pointer to a string that is a pathname of the parent directory of
.Ar path .
Trailing
.Sq /
characters in
.Ar path
are not counted as part of the path.
.Pp
If
.Ar path
does not contain a
.Sq / ,
then
.Fn dirname
returns a pointer to the string
.Dq \&. .
.Pp
If
.Ar path
is a null pointer or points to an empty string,
.Fn dirname
returns a pointer to the string
.Dq \&. .
.Sh RETURN VALUES
The
.Fn dirname
function returns a pointer to a string that is the parent directory of
.Ar path .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr dirname 1 ,
.Xr basename 3
.Sh STANDARDS
.Bl -bullet -compact
.It
.St -xpg4.2
.It
.St -p1003.1-2001
.El
.Sh BUGS
If the length of the result is longer than
.Dv PATH_MAX
bytes
.Pq including the terminating nul ,
the result will be truncated.
.Pp
The
.Fn dirname
function returns a pointer to static storage that may be overwritten
by subsequent calls to
.Fn dirname .
This is not strictly a bug; it is explicitly allowed by
.St -p1003.1-2001 .