Grab the filename in Unix out of full path

bash shell unix ksh
iwan picture iwan · Apr 12, 2012 · Viewed 57.8k times · Source

I am trying to get "abc.txt" out of /this/is/could/be/any/path/abc.txt using Unix command. Note that /this/is/could/be/any/path is dynamic.

Any idea?

Answer

kev picture kev · Apr 12, 2012

In bash:

path=/this/is/could/be/any/path/abc.txt

If your path has spaces in it, wrap it in "

path="/this/is/could/be/any/path/a b c.txt"

Then to extract the path, use the basename function

file=$(basename "$path")

or

file=${path##*/}

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