Skip to content

Linux commands: basename

New Course Coming Soon:

Get Really Good at Git

A quick guide to the `basename` command, used to return the filename portion of a path

Suppose you have a path to a file, for example /Users/flavio/test.txt.

Running

basename /Users/flavio/test.txt

will return the text.txt string:

If you run basename on a path string that points to a directory, you will get the last segment of the path. In this example, /Users/flavio is a directory:

The basename command works on Linux, macOS, WSL, and anywhere you have a UNIX environment

Are you intimidated by Git? Can’t figure out merge vs rebase? Are you afraid of screwing up something any time you have to do something in Git? Do you rely on ChatGPT or random people’s answer on StackOverflow to fix your problems? Your coworkers are tired of explaining Git to you all the time? Git is something we all need to use, but few of us really master it. I created this course to improve your Git (and GitHub) knowledge at a radical level. A course that helps you feel less frustrated with Git. Launching Summer 2024. Join the waiting list!
→ Get my Linux Command Line Handbook

Here is how can I help you: