.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1997 Todd C. Miller <Todd.Miller@courtesan.com>
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
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.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. The name of the author may not be used to endorse or promote products
.\"    derived from this software without specific prior written permission.
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.\" INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY
.\" AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL
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.\" EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO,
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.\" OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY,
.\" WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR
.\" OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF
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.\"
.\" $OpenBSD: basename.3,v 1.12 2000/04/18 03:01:25 aaron Exp $
.\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/gen/basename.3,v 1.7 2004/07/02 23:52:10 ru Exp $
.\"
.Dd August 17, 1997
.Dt BASENAME 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm basename
.Nd extract the base portion of a pathname
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In libgen.h
.Ft char *
.Fo basename
.Fa "char *path"
.Fc
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn basename
function
returns the last component from the pathname pointed to by
.Fa path ,
deleting any trailing
.Sq \&/
characters.
If
.Fa path
consists entirely of
.Sq \&/
characters, a pointer to the string
.Qq \&/
is returned.
If
.Fa path
is a null pointer or the empty string, a pointer to the string
.Qq \&.
is returned.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
On successful completion,
.Fn basename
returns a pointer to the last component of
.Fa path .
.Pp
If
.Fn basename
fails, a null pointer is returned and the global variable
.Va errno
is set to indicate the error.
.Sh ERRORS
The following error codes may be set in
.Va errno :
.Bl -tag -width Er
.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
The path component to be returned was larger than
.Dv MAXPATHLEN .
.El
.Sh WARNINGS
The
.Fn basename
function
returns a pointer to internal static storage space
that will be overwritten by subsequent calls.
The function may modify the string pointed to by
.Fa path .
.Sh LEGACY SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <libgen.h>
.Pp
.Ft char *
.br
.Fo basename
.Fa "const char *path"
.Fc ;
.Pp
In legacy mode,
.Fa path
will not be changed.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr basename 1 ,
.Xr dirname 1 ,
.Xr dirname 3 ,
.Xr compat 5
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Fn basename
function conforms to
.St -xpg4.2 .
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Fn basename
function first appeared in
.Ox 2.2
and
.Fx 4.2 .
.Sh AUTHORS
.An "Todd C. Miller" Aq Todd.Miller@courtesan.com