dirname - Man Page

• Calculate the parent directory of a given path: dirname path/to/file_or_directory
• Calculate the parent directory of multiple paths: dirname path/to/file_or_directory1 path/to/file_or_directory2 ...
• Delimit output with a NUL character instead of a newline (useful when combining with xargs): dirname --zero path/to/file_or_directory1 path/to/file_or_directory2 ...

tldr.sh

dirname [OPTION] NAME...

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

-z,  --zero

end each output line with NUL, not newline

--help

display this help and exit

--version

output version information and exit

dirname /usr/bin/

-> "/usr"

dirname dir1/str dir2/str

-> "dir1" followed by "dir2"

dirname stdio.h

-> "."

Written by David MacKenzie and Jim Meyering.

GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

Copyright © 2024 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.

basename(1), readlink(1)

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

basename(1), basename(3), cksfv(1), datamash(1).