<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>
<!-- $Revision: 1.10 $ -->
<!-- splitted from ./en/functions/filesystem.xml, last change in rev 1.2 -->
<refentry id="function.dirname">
 <refnamediv>
  <refname>dirname</refname>
  <refpurpose>Returns directory name component of path</refpurpose>
 </refnamediv>
 <refsect1>
  <title>Description</title>
  <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>
  <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>
  <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>
  <note>
   <para>
    In PHP 4.0.3, <function>dirname</function> was fixed to be
    POSIX-compliant. Essentially, this means that 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. Note that this means that
    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>
   <function>dirname</function> has changed its behaviour in PHP 4.3.0.
   Check the following examples:
   <informalexample>
    <programlisting role="php">
<![CDATA[
<?php

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

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

?>
]]>
    </programlisting>
   </informalexample>
  </para>
  <para>
   <function>dirname</function> has been binary safe since PHP 5.0.0
  </para>
  <para>
   See also <function>basename</function>, <function>pathinfo</function>,
   and <function>realpath</function>.
  </para>
 </refsect1>
</refentry>

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