dirname

dirname takes a path and prints everything except its final component — the directory the name lives in. It is the counterpart of basename.

dirname [options] name...

$ dirname /home/jack/projects/notes.txt
/home/jack/projects

Like basename, it is a pure text operation — dirname never touches the file system, so the path need not exist.

How it handles edge cases #

• If the name has no / in it at all, there is no directory part, so dirname prints . — the current directory.
• Trailing slashes on the name are ignored before the final component is removed.

$ dirname notes.txt
.
$ dirname /home/jack/projects/
/home

Multiple names #

dirname accepts any number of names and prints the directory part of each on its own line:

$ dirname /etc/hosts /var/log/messages report.txt
/etc
/var/log
.

Options #

Exit status #