extracting file-name from absolute path

[alinaqvi90]

Hi

I want to extract the name of a file from its absolute path.

so for e.g.
I have a variable:
file=/logs/temp/t.out

so from the variable file i just want to extract: t.out

Whats the best possible way for this?

or simply put does the cut command allow to cut the last occurance of a delimeter?

cheers
ali

[khafa]

hi,



basename is for that
example

[me@home]$ var=/bin/ls
[me@home]$ basename $var
[me@home]$ ls

[alinaqvi90]

cheers khafa

also found:
fName=`echo $file | awk -F/ '{ print $(NF) }' `

I am not sure which one is more efficient though

[khafa]

also found:
fName=`echo $file | awk -F/ '{ print $(NF) }' `

I am not sure which one is more efficient though

basename should be more efficient as it is built for this purpose

[i92guboj]

basename is probably the best all-rounds tool for this, more efficient and easier to use without a doubt.

However, if you don't need portability (i.e. you are sure you will always use bash), you can use a bash builtin for string mangling for an slight efficiency gain (since it's a builting, no new process needs to be created).

$ file="/home/i92guboj/my random file.txt"
$ echo ${file##*\/}
my random file.txt

As said, this is shell specific stuff, so forget about it unless you are sure you'll be using bash and in that case, don't forget to add the correct shabang on the first line of your script.