basename

basename is a standard computer program on Unix and Unix-like operating systems. When basename is given a pathname, it will delete any prefix up to the last slash ('/') character and return the result. basename is described in the Single UNIX Specification and is primarily used in shell scripts.

basename
Initial releaseJanuary 1979 (1979-01)
Written inC
Operating systemUnix, Unix-like, Plan 9, Inferno
PlatformCross-platform
TypeCommand
Licensecoreutils: GPLv3+
Plan 9: MIT License

History

basename was introduced in X/Open Portability Guidelines issue 2 of 1987. It was inherited into the first version of POSIX and the Single Unix Specification.[1] It first appeared in 4.4BSD.[2]

The version of basename bundled in GNU coreutils was written by David MacKenzie.[3]

The command is available as a separate package for Microsoft Windows as part of the GnuWin32 project[4] and the UnxUtils collection of native Win32 ports of common GNU Unix-like utilities.[5]

Usage

The Single UNIX Specification specification for basename is.

basename string [suffix]
string
A pathname
suffix
If specified, basename will also delete the suffix.

Examples

basename will retrieve the last name from a pathname ignoring any trailing slashes

$ basename /home/jsmith/base.wiki 
base.wiki

$ basename /home/jsmith/
jsmith

$ basename /
/

basename can also be used to remove the end of the base name, but not the complete base name

$ basename /home/jsmith/base.wiki .wiki
base

$ basename /home/jsmith/base.wiki ki
base.wi

$ basename /home/jsmith/base.wiki base.wiki
base.wiki

See also

References
  1. basename – Shell and Utilities Reference, The Single UNIX Specification, Version 4 from The Open Group
  2. basename(1) – FreeBSD General Commands Manual
  3. basename(1) – Linux User Manual – User Commands
  4. CoreUtils for Windows
  5. Native Win32 ports of some GNU utilities
The Wikibook Guide to Unix has a page on the topic of: Commands
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