Extract a basename without an external process.

Bash Scripts: Double hash removes the longest matching prefix ending in a slash.

Bash snippet.sh
set -euo pipefail
path="reports/2026/annual.csv"
printf "%s\n" "${path##*/}"

Expected output EXAMPLE

annual.csv

Details

Requires Bash 4 or later. Save as snippet.sh and run bash snippet.sh in an empty working directory. Double hash removes the longest matching prefix ending in a slash.

✓ Verified

Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · · GNU bash, version 5.2.21(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) · bash 5.2.21-2ubuntu4; coreutils 9.4-3ubuntu6.3

Test inputs, results and environment

The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Snippet process uid 65534 with a read-only root filesystem and temporary working files. Networking disabled. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.

Architecture / host kernel
x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
Snippet identity / locale
uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged process) / C.UTF-8
Interpreter invocation
bash -euo pipefail -c <published code>
Container image ID
sha256:ec91410a8f6ec3e985830b5e3a0560306d36f8c1c5ccd91a6699abe707123fa3
Code SHA-256
a0b258476cae8662e8576cf257618047e936fef3b41bbf3dda07e758edaff53e
Dependencies
bash 5.2.21-2ubuntu4; coreutils 9.4-3ubuntu6.3

Test input setup

These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.

# No input files required.

Observed standard output

annual.csv

Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Exact stdout comparison. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.