basename

basename

 

pathname

 [

suffix

]

Given a pathname , strip the path prefix and leave just the filename, which is printed on standard output. If specified, a filename suffix (e.g., .c ) is removed also. basename is typically invoked via command substitution ( ` ` ) to generate a filename. See also dirname .

Example

Given the following fragment from a Bourne shell script:

prog_name="`basename $0`" echo "$prog_name: QUITTING: can't open $ofile"/      1>&2 ; exit 1

If the script is called do_it , then the following message would be printed on standard error:

do_it: QUITTING: can't open output_file