"dirname" Command

Learn all about dirname command

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Example-1

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dirname - strip last component from name

root:~# man dirname

Output each NAME with its last non-slash component and trailing slashes removed; if NAME contains no /'s, output '.' (meaning the current directory).

Example-1

1.1 Default Output

root:~# dirname /var/log/messages
/var/log
root:~# dirname /usr/bin/sort
/usr/bin
root:~# dirname /usr/bin/sort /var/log/messages
/usr/bin
/var/log
root:~# dirname abc.txt
.

1.2 End Output with NUL not newline (-z)

root:~# dirname /usr/bin/sort -z
/usr/binroot:~#

root:~# dirname /usr/bin/sort | cat -e
/usr/bin$
root:~# dirname /usr/bin/sort -z | cat -e
/usr/bin^root:~#

As you can see output doesn't have newline added and that is the reason it has merged with next prompt. Here, 'cat -e' was used to convert newline to $ and NUL to ^ which can help to understand the output.