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BASENAME(1)               BSD General Commands Manual              BASENAME(1)

NAME
     basename, dirname -- return filename or directory portion of pathname

SYNOPSIS
     basename string [suffix]
     basename [-a] [-s suffix] string [...]
     dirname string

DESCRIPTION
     The basename utility deletes any prefix ending with the last slash `/' character present in string
     (after first stripping trailing slashes), and a suffix, if given.  The suffix is not stripped if it is
     identical to the remaining characters in string.  The resulting filename is written to the standard
     output.  A non-existent suffix is ignored.  If -a is specified, then every argument is treated as a
     string as if basename were invoked with just one argument.  If -s is specified, then the suffix is
     taken as its argument, and all other arguments are treated as a string.

     The dirname utility deletes the filename portion, beginning with the last slash `/' character to the
     end of string (after first stripping trailing slashes), and writes the result to the standard output.

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

           FOO=`dirname /usr/bin/trail`

DIAGNOSTICS
     The basename and dirname utilities exit 0 on success, and >0 if an error occurs.

SEE ALSO
     csh(1), sh(1)

STANDARDS
     The basename and dirname utilities are expected to be IEEE Std 1003.2 (``POSIX.2'') compatible.

BSD                             April 18, 1994                             BSD