.\"	$NetBSD: basename.3,v 1.11 2003/09/06 20:58:11 kleink Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1997, 2002 The NetBSD Foundation, Inc.
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.\" This code is derived from software contributed to The NetBSD Foundation
.\" by Klaus Klein and Jason R. Thorpe.
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.Dd October 16, 2002
.Dt BASENAME 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm basename
.Nd return the last component of a pathname
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libc
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In libgen.h
.Ft char *
.Fn basename "char *path"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn basename
function takes the pathname pointed to by
.Ar path
and returns a pointer to the final component of the pathname,
deleting any trailing
.Sq /
characters.
.Pp
If
.Ar path
consists entirely of
.Sq /
characters,
.Fn basename
returns a pointer to the string
.Dq / .
.Pp
If
.Ar path
is a null pointer or points to an empty string,
.Fn basename
returns a pointer to the string
.Dq \&. .
.Sh RETURN VALUES
The
.Fn basename
function returns a pointer to the final component of
.Ar path .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr basename 1 ,
.Xr dirname 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 basename
function returns a pointer to static storage that may be overwritten
by subsequent calls to
.Fn basename .
This is not strictly a bug; it is explicitly allowed by
.St -p1003.1-2001 .