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<refentry xmlns="http://docbook.org/ns/docbook" xml:id="function.dirname">
 <refnamediv>
  <refname>dirname</refname>
  <refpurpose>Returns directory name component of path</refpurpose>
 </refnamediv>
 
 <refsect1 role="description">
  &reftitle.description;
  <methodsynopsis>
   <type>string</type><methodname>dirname</methodname>
   <methodparam><type>string</type><parameter>path</parameter></methodparam>
  </methodsynopsis>
  <para>
   Given a string containing a path to a file, this function will return the
   name of the directory.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="parameters">
  &reftitle.parameters;
  <para>
   <variablelist>
    <varlistentry>
     <term><parameter>path</parameter></term>
     <listitem>
      <para>
       A path.
      </para>
      <para>
       On Windows, both slash (<literal>/</literal>) and backslash
       (<literal>\</literal>) are used as directory separator character. In
       other environments, it is the forward slash (<literal>/</literal>).
      </para>
     </listitem>
    </varlistentry>
   </variablelist>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="returnvalues">
  &reftitle.returnvalues;
  <para>
   Returns the name of the directory. If there are no slashes in
   <parameter>path</parameter>, a dot ('<literal>.</literal>') is returned,
   indicating the current directory. Otherwise, the returned string is
   <parameter>path</parameter> with any trailing
   <literal>/component</literal> removed.
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="changelog">
  &reftitle.changelog;
  <para>
   <informaltable>
    <tgroup cols="2">
     <thead>
      <row>
       <entry>&Version;</entry>
       <entry>&Description;</entry>
      </row>
     </thead>
     <tbody>
      <row>
       <entry>5.0.0</entry>
       <entry>
        <function>dirname</function> is now binary safe
       </entry>
      </row>
      <row>
       <entry>4.0.3</entry>
       <entry>
        <function>dirname</function> was fixed to be POSIX-compliant.
       </entry>
      </row>
     </tbody>
    </tgroup>
   </informaltable>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="examples">
  &reftitle.examples;
  <para>
   <example>
    <title><function>dirname</function> example</title>
    <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php
$path = "/etc/passwd";
$file = dirname($path); // $file is set to "/etc"
?>
]]>
    </programlisting>
   </example>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="notes">
  &reftitle.notes;
  <note>
   <para>
    Since PHP 4.3.0, you will often get a slash or a dot back from
    <function>dirname</function> in situations where the older
    functionality would have given you the empty string.
   </para>
  </note>
  <para>
   Check the following change example:
   <informalexample>
    <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php

//before PHP 4.3.0
dirname('c:/'); // returned '.'

//after PHP 4.3.0
dirname('c:/x'); // returns 'c:\'
dirname('c:/Temp/x'); // returns 'c:/Temp'
dirname('/x'); // returns '\'

?>
]]>
    </programlisting>
   </informalexample>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

 <refsect1 role="seealso">
  &reftitle.seealso;
  <para>
   <simplelist>
    <member><function>basename</function></member>
    <member><function>pathinfo</function></member>
    <member><function>realpath</function></member>
   </simplelist>
  </para>
 </refsect1>

</refentry>

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