Doc #51830 [Opn]: dirname() and basename() documentation unclear/incorrect

Edit report at http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=51830&edit=1 ID: 51830 Updated by: kalle@php.net Reported by: chealer at gmail dot com Summary: dirname() and basename() documentation unclear/incorrect Status: Open Type: Documentation Problem Package: Documentation problem PHP Version: Irrelevant Block user comment: N New Comment: Internally we do not use the dirname() and basename() functions from the coreutils package, we have our own custom implementations of those in php, see php_basename() and zend_dirname() but I do not know if those implementations are identical to ours, so their descriptions might differ. I agree the basename() return description could be improved a little and the dirname() return value could be abit more specific. Previous Comments: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [2010-05-14 22:41:06] chealer at gmail dot com Description: ------------ The dirname() documentation, at http://www.php.net/manual/en/function.dirname.php , says that "Given a string containing a path to a file, this function will return the name of the directory.", This is either incomprehensible, or at best, ambiguous. Which directory? If giving a directory pathname, one would assume the given directory's pathname would be returned, but that is not the case. The basename() documentation is also wrong. It says the base name of the file given is returned. What's returned is not the base name, but the [POSIX] basename (without a space). Back to dirname(), it says: Returns the name of the directory. If there are no slashes in path, a dot ('.') is returned, indicating the current directory. Otherwise, the returned string is path with any trailing /component removed. This description must be copied from the coreutils dirname manpage, on which I filed a bug: http://debbugs.gnu.org/cgi/bugreport.cgi?bug=6175 The POSIX manpage is better, but non-free. As an alternative, I suggest to use coreutils dirname's info page. In addition to the issue in coreutils dirname's manpage, the description is not adapted to Windows. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ -- Edit this bug report at http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=51830&edit=1