Mac OS X Tiger in a Nutshell

Name

basename

Synopsis

basename pathname [suffix]
basename  [-s suffix] pathname
                     [...]

Given a pathname, strips the path prefix and leaves just the filename, which is printed on standard output. If specified, a filename suffix (e.g., .c) is removed also. The suffix may also be specified with the -s option, in which case multiple paths may be passed and stripped. basename is typically invoked via command substitution ('..') to generate a filename. See also dirname .

Option

-s suffix

Removes suffix from the filename, if found.

Example

Given the following fragment from a Bourne shell script:

ofile=output_file
myname="'basename $0'"
echo "$myname: QUITTING: can't open $ofile" 1>&2
exit 1

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

do_it: QUITTING: can't open output_file