get_filename(3)

💖 get_filename — bestie edition 💖

okay so this is a page from the Allegro manual, the game programming library, and we're talking about get_filename(3) — the little function that hands you a pointer to the filename part of a path. 🎀

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✨ NAME ✨

get_filename — returns a pointer to the filename portion of a path. it's giving Allegro game programming library realness 🦋

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <allegro.h>

char *get_filename(const char *path);

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💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so what this does is: it finds the filename portion of a completely specified file path. like, full path in, filename out. iconic.

now here's the tea on separators — both \ and / count as directory separators when you're under DOS and Windows. but under every other platform? only / counts. so no cap, the backslash thing is a Windows/DOS-only situation. 💀

example, look:

get_executable_name(name, sizeof(name));
allegro_message("Running `%s'\n", get_filename(name));

✨ important note: Allegro does not perform any IO operations during the verification. none. zero. it's just vibing with the string.

and the way that matters is: if you have /a/path/like/this/ — which doesn't have a filename — the function returns a pointer to the trailing null character. but if you have /a/path/like/this (no trailing slash), Allegro returns a pointer to this, even if it is a valid directory. no peeking at the filesystem, no checking if it's real, just vibes. 🙈

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🫶 RETURN VALUE 🫶

returns a pointer to the portion of path where the filename starts — or the beginning of path if no valid filename is found (eg. you are processing a path with backslashes under Unix, which lowkey will not work for you there bestie 😭).

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🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• get_extension(3)
• put_backslash(3)
• replace_filename(3)
• exmidi(3)

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and that's the whole page, periodt. 💅✨ this was Allegro, version 4.4.3 — shoutout to the Allegro girlies for keeping the docs alive, ily, go read get_extension(3) next bestie 💖🦋🌸