Extract directory path and filename

Question

I have a variable which has the directory path, along with the file name. I want to extract the filename alone from the Unix directory path and store it in a variable.

Answer 1

Using bash "here string":

$ fspec="/exp/home1/abc.txt" 
$ tr  "/"  "\n"  <<< $fspec | tail -1
abc.txt
$ filename=$(tr  "/"  "\n"  <<< $fspec | tail -1)
$ echo $filename
abc.txt

The benefit of the "here string" is that it avoids the need/overhead of running an echo command. In other words, the "here string" is internal to the shell. That is:

$ tr <<< $fspec

as opposed to:

$ echo $fspec | tr