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.\"
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: BSD-2-Clause
.\"
.\" Copyright 2020 Scott Long
.\" Copyright 2020 Stefan Eßer
.\" Copyright (c) 2026 Dag-Erling Smørgrav
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE AUTHOR AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.Dd July 20, 2026
.Dt GETLOCALBASE 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm getlocalbase
.Nd "return the path to the local software base directory"
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libutil
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In libutil.h
.Ft "const char *"
.Fn getlocalbase "void"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
function returns the path to the local software base directory,
normally
.Pa /usr/local .
.Pp
First the
.Ev LOCALBASE
environment variable is checked.
If that variable is undefined or empty, the
.Va user.localbase
sysctl is checked.
If that returns an empty string or an error occurs, the value of
.Dv _PATH_LOCALBASE
is used as a last resort.
.Pp
If the value obtained through these means is not a valid absolute path
shorter than
.Dv MAXPATHLEN ,
a constant string which has been deliberately chosen to cause any file
system operation using it to fail is returned instead.
.Pp
The contents of the string returned by
.Nm
shall not be modified by the caller.
.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
The
.Ev LOCALBASE
environment variable will only be used if the process calling
.Nm
is not setugid.
.Pp
Successive calls to
.Nm
will return the same value throughout the lifetime of the process,
regardless of any subsequent changes to the environment or sysctl
variables.
.Pp
The
.Nm
function is thread-safe if and only if it has been called at least
once already.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
The
.Fn getlocalbase
function returns a pointer to a null-terminated string.
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
.Bl -tag -width ".Ev LOCALBASE"
.It Ev LOCALBASE
Path to the local software base directory
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr environ 7 ,
.Xr sysctl 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
function first appeared in
.Fx 13.0 .
.Sh AUTHORS
.An -nosplit
The
.Nm
function was originally written by
.An Stefan Eßer Aq Mt se@FreeBSD.org
and was later reimplemented by
.An Dag-Erling Sm\(/orgrav Aq Mt des@FreeBSD.org .
This manual page was originally written by
.An Scott Long Aq Mt scottl@FreeBSD.org
and
.An Stefan Eßer Aq Mt se@FreeBSD.org
and was later substantially rewritten by
.An Dag-Erling Sm\(/orgrav Aq Mt des@FreeBSD.org .
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