BASENAME(1)

📦
version 9.12 · 28 versions
, in arch rolling

🎀 BASENAME(1) 🎀

okay bestie, welcome to basename — a User Commands classic, and honestly? iconic. ✨

💖 NAME 💖

basename — strip directory and suffix from filenames. that's it. that's the whole job. and she does it flawlessly. 💅

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

basename NAME [SUFFIX]
basename OPTION... NAME...

two whole modes, pick your fighter. 🫶

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

So here's the vibe: basename prints NAME with any leading directory components removed. just straight up yeets the whole path prefix. bye. 🚮

And if you specified a trailing SUFFIX, she'll remove that too. double slay. ✨

real talk though: mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too. no shortcuts on the shortcuts, bestie. 💀

✨ the options, one by one ✨

  • -a, --multiple — support multiple arguments and treat each as a NAME. plural girlies rise 🙈
  • -s, --suffix=SUFFIX — remove a trailing SUFFIX; implies -a. yes she does it all by herself, no extra flag needed 💅
  • -z, --zero — end each output line with NUL, not newline. for the chaotic gremlins who need NUL-separated output 🍓
  • --help — display this help and exit. she's helpful AND humble 😭
  • --version — output version information and exit. main character moment 👑

🌈 EXAMPLES 🌈

these are literally so good, look:

basename /usr/bin/sort          -> "sort"
basename include/stdio.h .h     -> "stdio"
basename -s .h include/stdio.h  -> "stdio"
basename -a any/str1 any/str2   -> "str1" followed by "str2"

see how -s .h and the plain positional .h do the exact same thing?? lowkey the same energy. and -a just eats a whole list of them and spits out "str1" followed by "str2". ate. 🔥

💜 AUTHOR 💜

Written by David MacKenzie. thank you king, we owe you everything 🫶

🐛 REPORTING BUGS 🐛

found something cursed? tell the people:

Copyright © 2026 Free Software Foundation, Inc. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>.

This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.

There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. fr fr, no cap, don't come for them if it breaks 😭

🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/basename> or available locally via: info '(coreutils) basename invocation'

and that's the whole page bestie!! 🎀✨ this was GNU coreutils 9.12, dated September 2026 — manual page BASENAME(1), aka the cutest little path-stripper in the whole toolkit. go forth and strip. 💖🦋

📦 where this page comes from