In this example, the $file variable contains the absolute path to example.txt.

my $file = "/home/john.doe/example.txt";

Printing the $file variable . . . 

print "$file \n";

. . . will return the absolute path to example.txt.

/home/john.doe/example.txt

File::Basename can be used to parse the dirname and basename. In this example . . . 

• $dirname = /home/john.doe
• $basename = example.txt

my $file     = "/home/john.doe/example.txt";
my $dirname  = File::Basename::dirname($file);
my $basename = File::Basename::basename($file);