[bash] Get just the filename from a path in a Bash script

How would I get just the filename without the extension and no path?

The following gives me no extension, but I still have the path attached:

source_file_filename_no_ext=${source_file%.*}

This question is related to bash scripting shell

The answer is


$ file=${$(basename $file_path)%.*}

Some more alternative options because regexes (regi ?) are awesome!

Here is a Simple regex to do the job:

 regex="[^/]*$"

Example (grep):

 FP="/hello/world/my/file/path/hello_my_filename.log"
 echo $FP | grep -oP "$regex"
 #Or using standard input
 grep -oP "$regex" <<< $FP

Example (awk):

 echo $FP | awk '{match($1, "$regex",a)}END{print a[0]}
 #Or using stardard input
 awk '{match($1, "$regex",a)}END{print a[0]} <<< $FP

If you need a more complicated regex: For example your path is wrapped in a string.

 StrFP="my string is awesome file: /hello/world/my/file/path/hello_my_filename.log sweet path bro."

 #this regex matches a string not containing / and ends with a period 
 #then at least one word character 
 #so its useful if you have an extension

 regex="[^/]*\.\w{1,}"

 #usage
 grep -oP "$regex" <<< $StrFP

 #alternatively you can get a little more complicated and use lookarounds
 #this regex matches a part of a string that starts with /  that does not contain a / 
 ##then uses the lazy operator ? to match any character at any amount (as little as possible hence the lazy)
 ##that is followed by a space
 ##this allows use to match just a file name in a string with a file path if it has an exntension or not
 ##also if the path doesnt have file it will match the last directory in the file path 
 ##however this will break if the file path has a space in it.

 regex="(?<=/)[^/]*?(?=\s)"

 #to fix the above problem you can use sed to remove spaces from the file path only
 ## as a side note unfortunately sed has limited regex capibility and it must be written out in long hand.
 NewStrFP=$(echo $StrFP | sed 's:\(/[a-z]*\)\( \)\([a-z]*/\):\1\3:g')
 grep -oP "$regex" <<< $NewStrFP

Total solution with Regexes:

This function can give you the filename with or without extension of a linux filepath even if the filename has multiple "."s in it. It can also handle spaces in the filepath and if the file path is embedded or wrapped in a string.

#you may notice that the sed replace has gotten really crazy looking
#I just added all of the allowed characters in a linux file path
function Get-FileName(){
    local FileString="$1"
    local NoExtension="$2"
    local FileString=$(echo $FileString | sed 's:\(/[a-zA-Z0-9\<\>\|\\\:\)\(\&\;\,\?\*]*\)\( \)\([a-zA-Z0-9\<\>\|\\\:\)\(\&\;\,\?\*]*/\):\1\3:g')

    local regex="(?<=/)[^/]*?(?=\s)"

    local FileName=$(echo $FileString | grep -oP "$regex")

    if [[ "$NoExtension" != "" ]]; then
        sed 's:\.[^\.]*$::g' <<< $FileName
    else
        echo "$FileName"
    fi
}

## call the function with extension
Get-FileName "my string is awesome file: /hel lo/world/my/file test/path/hello_my_filename.log sweet path bro."

##call function without extension
Get-FileName "my string is awesome file: /hel lo/world/my/file test/path/hello_my_filename.log sweet path bro." "1"

If you have to mess with a windows path you can start with this one:

 [^\\]*$       

basename and dirname solutions are more convenient. Those are alternative commands:

FILE_PATH="/opt/datastores/sda2/test.old.img"
echo "$FILE_PATH" | sed "s/.*\///"

This returns test.old.img like basename.

This is salt filename without extension:

echo "$FILE_PATH" | sed -r "s/.+\/(.+)\..+/\1/"

It returns test.old.

And following statement gives the full path like dirname command.

echo "$FILE_PATH" | sed -r "s/(.+)\/.+/\1/"

It returns /opt/datastores/sda2


Here is an easy way to get the file name from a path:

echo "$PATH" | rev | cut -d"/" -f1 | rev

To remove the extension you can use, assuming the file name has only ONE dot (the extension dot):

cut -d"." -f1

$ source_file_filename_no_ext=${source_file%.*}
$ echo ${source_file_filename_no_ext##*/}

Most UNIX-like operating systems have a basename executable for a very similar purpose (and dirname for the path):

pax> a=/tmp/file.txt
pax> b=$(basename $a)
pax> echo $b
file.txt

That unfortunately just gives you the file name, including the extension, so you'd need to find a way to strip that off as well.

So, given you have to do that anyway, you may as well find a method that can strip off the path and the extension.

One way to do that (and this is a bash-only solution, needing no other executables):

pax> a=/tmp/xx/file.tar.gz
pax> xpath=${a%/*} 
pax> xbase=${a##*/}
pax> xfext=${xbase##*.}
pax> xpref=${xbase%.*}
pax> echo;echo path=${xpath};echo pref=${xpref};echo ext=${xfext}

path=/tmp/xx
pref=file.tar
ext=gz

That little snippet sets xpath (the file path), xpref (the file prefix, what you were specifically asking for) and xfext (the file extension).


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