Get directory name without full path (C unix)

Question

DIR *dir;
struct dirent *entry;
if ((dir = opendir (argv[1])) != NULL) {
  while ((entry = readdir (dir)) != NULL) {
    if(strcmp(entry->d_name,argv[2])==0)   
        printf ("%s\n", entry->d_name);
}
//recursive call, can post if needed

I'm trying to make a program to find all files/folders with a specific name but with my current code I get the full filepath so I can't really use strcmp to find my path. Let's say that argv[2]=="Programs" then it won't find it if the path is "c://Programs". Is there any way in C to just get the name of the directory?

`entry->d_name` should contain just the file/directory name, not the full path. What are you seeing in this field? — dbush, Sep 29 '15 at 13:11
Take a look to basename it returns the last element in the path — rkachach, Sep 29 '15 at 13:11

Michi · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-29T15:21:14.070

Is there any way in C to just get the name of the directory?

On Linux I use something like this:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<unistd.h>
#include<linux/limits.h>
#include<string.h>

void *getCurrentDir(void){
    char *currWorkDir, *token;
    char buffer[PATH_MAX + 1];
    char *directory;
    size_t length;

    currWorkDir = getcwd(buffer, PATH_MAX + 1 );
    token = strrchr(currWorkDir, '/');

    if( currWorkDir == NULL ){
        printf("Error"); /* You decide here */
        exit(1);
    }

    if (token == NULL) {
        printf("Error"); /* You decide here */
        exit(1);
    }

    length = strlen(token);
    directory = malloc(length);
    memcpy(directory, token+1, length);

    return directory;
}

int main( void ){
    char *dir = getCurrentDir();
    printf("The current Working Directory is: %s\n", dir);

    free(dir);
    return 0;
}

Output:

michi@michi-laptop:~$ pwd
/home/michi

michi@michi-laptop:~$ ./program
The current Working Directory is: michi

Or something like this:

#include<stdio.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<unistd.h>
#include<linux/limits.h>
#include<string.h>

void *getCurrentDir(char *path){
    char *token;
    char *directory;
    size_t length;

    token = strrchr(path, '/');

    if (token == NULL) {
        printf("Error"); /* You decide here */
        exit(1);
    }

    length = strlen(token);
    directory = malloc(length);
    memcpy(directory, token+1, length);

    return directory;
}

int main( void ){
    char *path = "/home/michi";
    char *dir = getCurrentDir(path);
    printf("The current Working Directory is: %s\n", dir);

    free(dir);
    return 0;
}

Get directory name without full path (C unix)

1 Answers1