Name

dirname - get a file's containing directory path

Synopsis

#include <libgen.h>

char* dirname(char* path);

Description

Given a file path, dirname() returns a path to the directory that contains the file. dirname() works purely lexically, meaning it only manipulates the path as a string, and does not check if such a file or its containing directory actually exist.

A call to dirname() may reuse and modify the passed in path buffer. Do not expect it to have the same value after calling dirname().

Return value

dirname() returns the directory path as a string. This string may be allocated in static memory, or it may point to some part of the original path buffer. Do not free() the returned string, and do not free() the original path buffer while using the returned string.

Examples

#include <AK/LogStream.h>
#include <libgen.h>

int main()
{
    char path1[] = "/home/anon/README.md";
    dbgln("{}", dirname(path1)); // should be "/home/anon"

    char path2[] = "foo/bar/";
    dbgln("{}", dirname(path2)); // should be "foo"

    char path3[] = "foo";
    dbgln("{}", dirname(path3)); // should be "."

    char path4[] = "/";
    dbgln("{}", dirname(path4)); // should be "/"
}

See also

• basename(3)