Subject: Re: bug#10342: Bug Report for command "dirname"
From: Eric Blake <[email-masked]>
To: RANJITH REDDY KOMANLA <[email-masked]>
Cc: [email-masked]
Date: Wed, 21 Dec 2011 11:06:27 -0700
List-Id: <debbugs-submit.debbugs.gnu.org>

tag 10342 notabug
thanks

On 12/21/2011 09:27 AM, RANJITH REDDY KOMANLA wrote:
> ls -l  : Nothing within the directory !!
> But when i tried using ----->   dirname xyz
> it gave output as <.>   { output states , present directory

This is the correct behavior.  It is required by POSIX - dirname is a
completely textual operation that pays no attention to what exists or
does not exist in your file system, and the dirname of a string that
resembles a relative file name is the string '.' (the current directory
is the correct dirname of a relative file name, if that relative name
was indeed a file; but the algorithm works even if there is no file by
that name).

http://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/utilities/dirname.html

I'm closing this bug report, as there is no bug here.  However, feel
free to make further comments if you need more clarification, or help in
determining if 'dirname' really is the best fit for the shell scripting
task you were really attempting to solve.

-- 
Eric Blake   [email-masked]    +1-919-301-3266
Libvirt virtualization library http://libvirt.org