DIRNAME

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: February 2026
Index Return to Main Contents

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NAME

dirname - strip last component from file name  

SYNOPSIS

dirname [,OPTION/] ,NAME/...  

DESCRIPTION

Output each NAME with its last non-slash component and trailing slashes removed; if NAME contains no /'s, output '.' (meaning the current directory).

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#dirnam-z'-z, --zeroX'tty: link'

end each output line with NUL, not newline

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/dirname#dirnam-help'--helpX'tty: link'

display this help and exit

X'tty: link https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/dirname#dirnam-version'--versionX'tty: link'

output version information and exit

 

EXAMPLES

dirname /usr/bin/

-> "/usr"

dirname dir1/str dir2/str

-> "dir1" followed by "dir2"

dirname stdio.h

-> "."

 

AUTHOR

Written by David MacKenzie and Jim Meyering.  

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.org

Report Gentoo bugs to: https://bugs.gentoo.org/
GNU coreutils home page: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
General help using GNU software: <https://www.gnu.org/gethelp/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>  

SEE ALSO

basename(1), readlink(1)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/dirname>
or available locally via: info aq(coreutils) dirname invocationaq

Packaged by Gentoo (9.10 (p0))
Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

EXAMPLES

AUTHOR

REPORTING BUGS

SEE ALSO