basename
Initial release | January 1979 |
---|---|
Written in | C |
Operating system | Unix, Unix-like, Plan 9, Inferno |
Platform | Cross-platform |
Type | Command |
License | coreutils: GPLv3+ Plan 9: MIT License |
basename is a standard computer program on Unix and Unix-like operating systems. When basename is given a pathname, it will delete any prefix up to the last slash ('/'
) character and return the result. basename is described in the Single UNIX Specification and is primarily used in shell scripts.
History
[edit]basename
was introduced in X/Open Portability Guidelines issue 2 of 1987. It was inherited into the first version of POSIX and the Single Unix Specification.[1] It first appeared in 4.4BSD.[2]
The version of basename
bundled in GNU coreutils was written by David MacKenzie.[3]
The command is available as a separate package for Microsoft Windows as part of the GnuWin32 project[4] and the UnxUtils collection of native Win32 ports of common GNU Unix-like utilities.[5]
Usage
[edit]The Single UNIX Specification for basename is.
basename string [suffix]
- string
- A pathname
- suffix
- If specified, basename will also delete the suffix.
Examples
[edit]basename will retrieve the last name from a pathname ignoring any trailing slashes
$ basename /home/jsmith/base.wiki
base.wiki
$ basename /home/jsmith/
jsmith
$ basename /
/
basename can also be used to remove the end of the base name, but not the complete base name
$ basename /home/jsmith/base.wiki .wiki
base
$ basename /home/jsmith/base.wiki ki
base.wi
$ basename /home/jsmith/base.wiki base.wiki
base.wiki
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ The Single UNIX Specification, Version 4 from The Open Group – Shell and Utilities Reference,
- ^ FreeBSD General Commands Manual –
- ^ Linux User Manual – User Commands –
- ^ CoreUtils for Windows
- ^ Native Win32 ports of some GNU utilities
External links
[edit]![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/df/Wikibooks-logo-en-noslogan.svg/40px-Wikibooks-logo-en-noslogan.svg.png)
- The Single UNIX Specification, Version 4 from The Open Group : return non-directory portion of a pathname – Shell and Utilities Reference,
- Plan 9 Programmer's Manual, Volume 1 –
- Inferno General commands Manual –
- Linux User Commands Manual –
- OpenBSD General Commands Manual –