dirname flags & options

Basic usage

Strip the last component from a path, returning the directory.

dirname /usr/local/bin/python3

Multiple paths

Pass multiple paths to get each directory.

dirname /etc/nginx/nginx.conf /var/log/syslog

-z, --zero

Separate output with NUL instead of newlines.

dirname -z /path/to/file1 /path/to/file2

Scripting pattern

Common pattern: get the directory of the currently running script.

SCRIPT_DIR=$(dirname "$0")

Nested paths

Returns the parent at each level.

dirname /a/b/c/d

dirname /a