basename

Strip directory and suffix from filenames.

TLDR

Extract filename from path

$ basename [/path/to/file.txt]

Remove suffix

$ basename [/path/to/file.txt] [.txt]

Multiple files

$ basename -a [/path/to/file1.txt] [/path/to/file2.txt]

Remove any suffix

$ basename -s [.txt] [/path/to/file.txt]

basename removes directory components from a pathname, leaving only the final filename. It can optionally remove a trailing suffix, making it useful for extracting filenames in shell scripts.The tool is part of GNU coreutils and commonly used in build scripts and file processing pipelines.

PARAMETERS

-a, --multiple

Process multiple arguments

-s, --suffix=suffix

Remove trailing suffix

-z, --zero

Separate output with NUL instead of newline

BEHAVIOR

Given `/path/to/file.txt`:- basename returns `file.txt`- basename with suffix `.txt` returns `file`

CAVEATS

Only removes a single trailing suffix exactly matching the argument — `basename file.tar.gz .gz` yields `file.tar`, not `file`. The path does not need to exist on disk. The two-argument form (positional suffix) is the POSIX behavior; `-s` plus `-a` is the GNU extension that supports multiple inputs and a non-positional suffix. In Bash scripts the parameter-expansion forms `${filepath##*/}` and `${name%.txt}` are faster than spawning `basename`.

HISTORY

basename has been part of Unix since the early days, included in POSIX standards, and is available in GNU coreutils since 1992.