dirname(1) — Linux manual page

DIRNAME(1)                    User Commands                    DIRNAME(1)

NAME         top

       dirname - strip last component from file name

SYNOPSIS         top

       dirname [OPTION] NAME...

DESCRIPTION         top

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

       ]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/manual/coreutils.html#dirname-z\-z, --zero]8;;\
              end each output line with NUL, not newline

       ]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/dirname#dirname--help\--help]8;;\ display this help and exit

       ]8;;https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/dirname#dirname--version\--version]8;;\
              output version information and exit

EXAMPLES         top

       dirname /usr/bin/
              -> "/usr"

       dirname dir1/str dir2/str
              -> "dir1" followed by "dir2"

       dirname stdio.h
              -> "."

AUTHOR         top

       Written by David MacKenzie and Jim Meyering.

REPORTING BUGS         top

       Report bugs to: bug-coreutils@gnu.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/>

COPYRIGHT         top

       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.

SEE ALSO         top

       basename(1), readlink(1)

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

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of the coreutils (basic file, shell and text
       manipulation utilities) project.  Information about the project
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       have a bug report for this manual page, see
       ⟨http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/⟩.  This page was obtained
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GNU coreutils 9.11              April 2026                     DIRNAME(1)

Pages that refer to this page: basename(1),  basename(3),  rpm-macros(7)

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