Linux and Unix Shell Programming

basename

Format:

basename path 

Basename will strip the path from a supplied pathname and return just the filename. Commonly used in usage statements in scripts, in this case substitution is used when echoing out the filename.

					$ basename /home/dave/myscript 
myscript
				

echo "Usage: ` basename $0 ` give me a file " exit 1 ...

If the above was part of a script called myscript, the output would be,

myscript: give me a file

The $0 is a special variable that holds the current full pathname of the script.