DIRNAME(1) User Commands DIRNAME(1) NAME dirname - strip last component from file name SYNOPSIS dirname [OPTION] NAME... DESCRIPTION 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 EXAMPLES dirname /usr/bin/ -> "/usr" dirname dir1/str dir2/str -> "dir1" followed by "dir2" dirname stdio.h -> "." AUTHOR Written by David MacKenzie and Jim Meyering. REPORTING BUGS GNU coreutils online help: Report any translation bugs to COPYRIGHT Copyright (C) 2024 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later . This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. SEE ALSO basename(1), readlink(1) Full documentation or available locally via: info '(coreutils) dirname invocation' GNU coreutils 9.5 March 2024 DIRNAME(1)