Dirname Command Examples

Dirname command has very simple syntax

dirname OPTION PATH

Using the command will give the directory path:

dirname /home/user/data/filename.txt
/home/user/data

Like the basename command, the dirname command is actually primitive. It really does not recognize the file path. It just searches for slashes (/) and prints everything that is before the last slash. In fact, you can ask him any line with / in it, and it will work with it. For example: a random string without a file name is very often used. It is possible to see that it still works the same way and displays a line, deleting the last / and the text after it

destroyer@hostry: ~$ dirname dir1/dir2/dir3/dir4
dir1/dir2/dir3
destroyer@hostry: ~$

If there is no forward slash (/) in the path, a period (.) Will be displayed, indicating the current directory

destroyer@hostry: ~$ dirname hostry.txt
.
destroyer@hostry: ~$

You can also use dirname with several paths. It will return the output for each path in a new line:

destroyer@histry: ~$ dirname dir1/file dir2/file
dir1
dir2
destroyer@hostry: ~$

You can use the -z option to get the result on the same line as the output, separated by a NULL character.

Using Dirname in a Bash Script

Some examples of using the dirname command have been shown. Now, for example, the following will be taken: you have a file path variable and you need to get the path to the directory where this file is located. It could be a very simple script

pathname="/home/dir/data/filename"
result=$(dirname "$pathname")
echo $result

As mentioned earlier, the dirname command is complemented by the basename command. Unlike dirname, the basename command prints only the last component of the path.