HowTo: Bash Extract Filename And Extension In Unix / Linux

To extract the filename and extension from a file path in Bash on a Unix or Linux system, you can use parameter expansion and the basename command.

Here is an example of using parameter expansion to extract the filename and extension from a file path:

path="/path/to/file.txt"
filename=${path##*/}  # Extract the filename with extension
extension=${filename##*.}  # Extract the extension
echo "Filename: $filename"
echo "Extension: $extension"

This will extract the filename and extension from the path variable, and print them to the terminal.

The ##*/ operator removes the longest match for */ from the beginning of the path variable, which leaves the filename with extension. The ##*. operator removes the longest match for *. from the beginning of the filename variable, which leaves the extension.

Alternatively, you can use the basename command to extract the filename and extension from a file path.

Here is an example of using the basename command to extract the filename and extension:

path="/path/to/file.txt"
filename=$(basename "$path")  # Extract the filename with extension
extension="${filename##*.}"  # Extract the extension
echo "Filename: $filename"
echo "Extension: $extension"

This will extract the filename and extension from the path variable in the same way as the previous example.

Keep in mind that the basename command may not be available on all Unix and Linux systems. In that case, you can use the parameter expansion method to extract the filename and extension from a file path.