diff -r 8a3f14eda1c5 -r 1044405ba1d1 tools/libxl/libxl_utils.c
--- a/tools/libxl/libxl_utils.c
+++ b/tools/libxl/libxl_utils.c
@@ -43,6 +43,20 @@ static struct schedid_name schedid_name[
     { NULL, -1 }
 };
 
+const char *libxl_basename(const char *name)
+{
+    const char *filename;
+    if (name == NULL)
+        return strdup(".");
+    if (name[0] == '\0')
+        return strdup(".");
+
+    filename = strrchr(name, '/');
+    if (filename)
+        return strdup(filename+1);
+    return strdup(name);
+}
+
 unsigned long libxl_get_required_shadow_memory(unsigned long maxmem_kb, unsigned int smp_cpus)
 {
     /* 256 pages (1MB) per vcpu,
diff -r 8a3f14eda1c5 -r 1044405ba1d1 tools/libxl/libxl_utils.h
--- a/tools/libxl/libxl_utils.h
+++ b/tools/libxl/libxl_utils.h
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@
 
 #include "libxl.h"
 
+const char *libxl_basename(const char *name);
 unsigned long libxl_get_required_shadow_memory(unsigned long maxmem_kb, unsigned int smp_cpus);
 int libxl_name_to_domid(libxl_ctx *ctx, const char *name, uint32_t *domid);
 char *libxl_domid_to_name(libxl_ctx *ctx, uint32_t domid);
diff -r 8a3f14eda1c5 -r 1044405ba1d1 tools/libxl/xl_cmdimpl.c
--- a/tools/libxl/xl_cmdimpl.c
+++ b/tools/libxl/xl_cmdimpl.c
@@ -5365,7 +5365,7 @@ int main_cpupoolcreate(int argc, char **
     int config_len = 0;
     XLU_Config *config;
     const char *buf;
-    char *name;
+    const char *name;
     const char *sched;
     uint32_t poolid;
     int schedid = -1;
@@ -5455,7 +5455,7 @@ int main_cpupoolcreate(int argc, char **
     if (!xlu_cfg_get_string (config, "name", &buf))
         name = strdup(buf);
     else
-        name = basename(filename);
+        name = libxl_basename(filename);
     if (!libxl_name_to_cpupoolid(&ctx, name, &poolid)) {
         fprintf(stderr, "Pool name \"%s\" already exists\n", name);
         return -ERROR_FAIL;