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</div><hr /><div id="function.dirname" class="refentry">
<div class="refnamediv">
<h1 class="refname">dirname</h1>
<p class="verinfo">(PHP 4, PHP 5)</p><p class="refpurpose"><span class="refname">dirname</span> — <span class="dc-title">Returns parent directory's path</span></p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 description" id="refsect1-function.dirname-description">
<h3 class="title">Description</h3>
<div class="methodsynopsis dc-description">
<span class="type">string</span> <span class="methodname"><strong>dirname</strong></span>
( <span class="methodparam"><span class="type">string</span> <code class="parameter">$path</code></span>
)</div>
<p class="para rdfs-comment">
Given a string containing the path of a file or directory,
this function will return the parent directory's path.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 parameters" id="refsect1-function.dirname-parameters">
<h3 class="title">Parameters</h3>
<p class="para">
<dl>
<dt>
<span class="term"><em><code class="parameter">path</code></em></span>
<dd>
<p class="para">
A path.
</p>
<p class="para">
On Windows, both slash (<em>/</em>) and backslash
(<em>\</em>) are used as directory separator character. In
other environments, it is the forward slash (<em>/</em>).
</p>
</dd>
</dt>
</dl>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 returnvalues" id="refsect1-function.dirname-returnvalues">
<h3 class="title">Return Values</h3>
<p class="para">
Returns the path of the parent directory. If there are no slashes in
<em><code class="parameter">path</code></em>, a dot ('<em>.</em>') is returned,
indicating the current directory. Otherwise, the returned string is
<em><code class="parameter">path</code></em> with any trailing
<em>/component</em> removed.
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 changelog" id="refsect1-function.dirname-changelog">
<h3 class="title">Changelog</h3>
<p class="para">
<table class="doctable informaltable">
<thead>
<tr>
<th>Version</th>
<th>Description</th>
</tr>
</thead>
<tbody class="tbody">
<tr>
<td>5.0.0</td>
<td>
<span class="function"><strong>dirname()</strong></span> is now binary safe
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>4.0.3</td>
<td>
<span class="function"><strong>dirname()</strong></span> was fixed to be POSIX-compliant.
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 examples" id="refsect1-function.dirname-examples">
<h3 class="title">Examples</h3>
<p class="para">
<div class="example" id="example-2353">
<p><strong>Example #1 <span class="function"><strong>dirname()</strong></span> example</strong></p>
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /></span><span style="color: #007700">echo </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"1) " </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">dirname</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"/etc/passwd"</span><span style="color: #007700">) . </span><span style="color: #0000BB">PHP_EOL</span><span style="color: #007700">; </span><span style="color: #FF8000">// 1) /etc<br /></span><span style="color: #007700">echo </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"2) " </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">dirname</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"/etc/"</span><span style="color: #007700">) . </span><span style="color: #0000BB">PHP_EOL</span><span style="color: #007700">; </span><span style="color: #FF8000">// 2) / (or \ on Windows)<br /></span><span style="color: #007700">echo </span><span style="color: #DD0000">"3) " </span><span style="color: #007700">. </span><span style="color: #0000BB">dirname</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">"."</span><span style="color: #007700">); </span><span style="color: #FF8000">// 3) .<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 notes" id="refsect1-function.dirname-notes">
<h3 class="title">Notes</h3>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
<span class="function"><strong>dirname()</strong></span> operates naively on the input string,
and is not aware of the actual filesystem, or path components such
as "<em>..</em>".
</p>
</p></blockquote>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
<span class="function"><strong>dirname()</strong></span> is locale aware, so for it to see the
correct directory name with multibyte character paths, the matching locale must
be set using the <span class="function"><a href="function.setlocale.html" class="function">setlocale()</a></span> function.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
<blockquote class="note"><p><strong class="note">Note</strong>:
<p class="para">
Since PHP 4.3.0, you will often get a slash or a dot back from
<span class="function"><strong>dirname()</strong></span> in situations where the older
functionality would have given you the empty string.
</p>
</p></blockquote>
<p class="para">
Check the following change example:
<div class="informalexample">
<div class="example-contents">
<div class="phpcode"><code><span style="color: #000000">
<span style="color: #0000BB"><?php<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #FF8000">//before PHP 4.3.0<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">dirname</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'c:/'</span><span style="color: #007700">); </span><span style="color: #FF8000">// returned '.'<br /><br />//after PHP 4.3.0<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">dirname</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'c:/x'</span><span style="color: #007700">); </span><span style="color: #FF8000">// returns 'c:\'<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">dirname</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'c:/Temp/x'</span><span style="color: #007700">); </span><span style="color: #FF8000">// returns 'c:/Temp'<br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">dirname</span><span style="color: #007700">(</span><span style="color: #DD0000">'/x'</span><span style="color: #007700">); </span><span style="color: #FF8000">// returns '\'<br /><br /></span><span style="color: #0000BB">?></span>
</span>
</code></div>
</div>
</div>
</p>
</div>
<div class="refsect1 seealso" id="refsect1-function.dirname-seealso">
<h3 class="title">See Also</h3>
<p class="para">
<ul class="simplelist">
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.basename.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">basename()</a> - Returns trailing name component of path</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.pathinfo.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">pathinfo()</a> - Returns information about a file path</span></li>
<li class="member"> <span class="function"><a href="function.realpath.html" class="function" rel="rdfs-seeAlso">realpath()</a> - Returns canonicalized absolute pathname</span></li>
</ul>
</p>
</div>
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