The accepted answer works well in typical cases, but fails in edge cases, namely:
- For filenames without extension (called suffix in the remainder of this answer),
extension=${filename##*.} returns the input filename rather than an empty string.
extension=${filename##*.} does not include the initial ., contrary to convention.
- Blindly prepending
. would not work for filenames without suffix.
filename="${filename%.*}" will be the empty string, if the input file name starts with . and contains no further . characters (e.g., .bash_profile) - contrary to convention.
---------
Thus, the complexity of a robust solution that covers all edge cases calls for a function - see its definition below; it can return all components of a path.
Example call:
splitPath '/etc/bash.bashrc' dir fname fnameroot suffix
# -> $dir == '/etc'
# -> $fname == 'bash.bashrc'
# -> $fnameroot == 'bash'
# -> $suffix == '.bashrc'
Note that the arguments after the input path are freely chosen, positional variable names.
To skip variables not of interest that come before those that are, specify _ (to use throw-away variable $_) or ''; e.g., to extract filename root and extension only, use splitPath '/etc/bash.bashrc' _ _ fnameroot extension.
# SYNOPSIS
# splitPath path varDirname [varBasename [varBasenameRoot [varSuffix]]]
# DESCRIPTION
# Splits the specified input path into its components and returns them by assigning
# them to variables with the specified *names*.
# Specify '' or throw-away variable _ to skip earlier variables, if necessary.
# The filename suffix, if any, always starts with '.' - only the *last*
# '.'-prefixed token is reported as the suffix.
# As with `dirname`, varDirname will report '.' (current dir) for input paths
# that are mere filenames, and '/' for the root dir.
# As with `dirname` and `basename`, a trailing '/' in the input path is ignored.
# A '.' as the very first char. of a filename is NOT considered the beginning
# of a filename suffix.
# EXAMPLE
# splitPath '/home/jdoe/readme.txt' parentpath fname fnameroot suffix
# echo "$parentpath" # -> '/home/jdoe'
# echo "$fname" # -> 'readme.txt'
# echo "$fnameroot" # -> 'readme'
# echo "$suffix" # -> '.txt'
# ---
# splitPath '/home/jdoe/readme.txt' _ _ fnameroot
# echo "$fnameroot" # -> 'readme'
splitPath() {
local _sp_dirname= _sp_basename= _sp_basename_root= _sp_suffix=
# simple argument validation
(( $# >= 2 )) || { echo "$FUNCNAME: ERROR: Specify an input path and at least 1 output variable name." >&2; exit 2; }
# extract dirname (parent path) and basename (filename)
_sp_dirname=$(dirname "$1")
_sp_basename=$(basename "$1")
# determine suffix, if any
_sp_suffix=$([[ $_sp_basename = *.* ]] && printf %s ".${_sp_basename##*.}" || printf '')
# determine basename root (filemane w/o suffix)
if [[ "$_sp_basename" == "$_sp_suffix" ]]; then # does filename start with '.'?
_sp_basename_root=$_sp_basename
_sp_suffix=''
else # strip suffix from filename
_sp_basename_root=${_sp_basename%$_sp_suffix}
fi
# assign to output vars.
[[ -n $2 ]] && printf -v "$2" "$_sp_dirname"
[[ -n $3 ]] && printf -v "$3" "$_sp_basename"
[[ -n $4 ]] && printf -v "$4" "$_sp_basename_root"
[[ -n $5 ]] && printf -v "$5" "$_sp_suffix"
return 0
}
test_paths=(
'/etc/bash.bashrc'
'/usr/bin/grep'
'/Users/jdoe/.bash_profile'
'/Library/Application Support/'
'readme.new.txt'
)
for p in "${test_paths[@]}"; do
echo ----- "$p"
parentpath= fname= fnameroot= suffix=
splitPath "$p" parentpath fname fnameroot suffix
for n in parentpath fname fnameroot suffix; do
echo "$n=${!n}"
done
done
Test code that exercises the function:
test_paths=(
'/etc/bash.bashrc'
'/usr/bin/grep'
'/Users/jdoe/.bash_profile'
'/Library/Application Support/'
'readme.new.txt'
)
for p in "${test_paths[@]}"; do
echo ----- "$p"
parentpath= fname= fnameroot= suffix=
splitPath "$p" parentpath fname fnameroot suffix
for n in parentpath fname fnameroot suffix; do
echo "$n=${!n}"
done
done
Expected output - note the edge cases:
- a filename having no suffix
- a filename starting with
. (not considered the start of the suffix)
- an input path ending in
/ (trailing / is ignored)
- an input path that is a filename only (
. is returned as the parent path)
- a filename that has more than
.-prefixed token (only the last is considered the suffix):
----- /etc/bash.bashrc
parentpath=/etc
fname=bash.bashrc
fnameroot=bash
suffix=.bashrc
----- /usr/bin/grep
parentpath=/usr/bin
fname=grep
fnameroot=grep
suffix=
----- /Users/jdoe/.bash_profile
parentpath=/Users/jdoe
fname=.bash_profile
fnameroot=.bash_profile
suffix=
----- /Library/Application Support/
parentpath=/Library
fname=Application Support
fnameroot=Application Support
suffix=
----- readme.new.txt
parentpath=.
fname=readme.new.txt
fnameroot=readme.new
suffix=.txt
