I want to get the filename from a file path. It works fine when one file is specified, such as:
fname=$(basename -- /tmp/file1)
However, if provided as an expression such as fname=$(basename -- /tmp/fi*) it throws
basename: extra operand ‘/tmp/file1’.
In above case I don't expect it to resolve and expand the expression but rather just return fi* in fname, is it possible to do it using basename?
As stated in comments; the basename command only provides base name for an individual file.
If you need to collect base name from multiple files matching a wildcard * pattern, then you need to either work with arrays, or iterate the globbing pattern matches:
With Bash arrays:
#!/usr/bin/env bash
# Populates the files array with the wildcard pattern glob expansion
files=(/tmp/fi*)
# Strip each individual file names starting with anything and up to last /
# stores the results into another basenames array
basenames=("${files[@]##*/}")
# Iterate the basenames array to work with
for abasename in "${basenames[@]}"; do
: do something with each "$abasename"
done
Now if the shell you use has no support for arrays, you may iterate directly and process base names one by one:
#!/bin/sh
for afile in /tmp/fi*; do
# strip the directory path to get basename
abasename="${afile##*/}"
: do something with that "$abasename"
done