diff --git a/include/extern.h b/include/extern.h
index d61dcfac3..65d2026a5 100644
--- a/include/extern.h
+++ b/include/extern.h
@@ -868,6 +868,7 @@ extern void makerogueghost(void);
 
 /* ### files.c ### */
 
+extern const char *nh_basename(const char *, boolean);
 #if !defined(CROSSCOMPILE) || defined(CROSSCOMPILE_TARGET)
 extern int l_get_config_errors(lua_State *);
 #endif
@@ -3210,7 +3211,7 @@ extern int vms_creat(const char *, unsigned int);
 extern int vms_open(const char *, int, unsigned int);
 extern boolean same_dir(const char *, const char *);
 extern int c__translate(int);
-extern char *vms_basename(const char *);
+extern char *vms_basename(const char *, boolean);
 
 /* ### vmsmail.c ### */
 
diff --git a/include/vmsconf.h b/include/vmsconf.h
index b07b2f1f3..1ab86b3c5 100644
--- a/include/vmsconf.h
+++ b/include/vmsconf.h
@@ -335,7 +335,7 @@ typedef int32_t off_t;
 extern void vms_exit(int);
 extern int vms_open(const char *, int, unsigned);
 extern FILE *vms_fopen(const char *, const char *);
-char *vms_basename(const char *); /* vmsfiles.c */
+char *vms_basename(const char *, boolean); /* vmsfiles.c */
 
 #endif /* VMSCONF_H */
 #endif /* VMS */
diff --git a/src/files.c b/src/files.c
index 650e288bc..54d26fed3 100644
--- a/src/files.c
+++ b/src/files.c
@@ -232,6 +232,40 @@ static boolean copy_bytes(int, int);
 #endif
 static NHFILE *viable_nhfile(NHFILE *);
 
+/* return a file's name without its path and optionally trailing 'type' */
+const char *
+nh_basename(const char *fname, boolean keep_suffix)
+{
+#ifndef VMS
+    static char basebuf[80];
+    const char *p;
+
+    if ((p = strrchr(fname, '/')) != 0)
+        fname = p + 1;
+#if defined(WIN32) || defined(MSDOS)
+    if ((p = strrchr(fname, '\\')) != 0)
+        fname = p + 1;
+#endif
+    if ((p = strrchr(fname, '.')) != 0 && !keep_suffix) {
+        size_t ln = (size_t) (p - fname);
+        /* note that without path, name should be reasonable length;
+           it is expected to refer to a source file name or run-time
+           configuration file name and those aren't arbitrarily long;
+           if "name" part of "name.suffix" is too long for 'basebuf[]',
+           just return that as-is without stripping off ".suffix" */
+
+        if (ln < sizeof basebuf) {
+            strncpy(basebuf, fname, ln);
+            basebuf[ln] = '\0';
+            fname = basebuf;
+        }
+    }
+#else /* VMS */
+    fname = vms_basename(fname, keep_suffix);
+#endif
+    return fname;
+}
+
 /*
  * fname_encode()
  *
@@ -4437,18 +4471,8 @@ debugcore(const char *filename, boolean wildcards)
     if (!debugfiles || !*debugfiles)
         return FALSE;
 
-/* strip filename's path if present */
-#ifdef UNIX
-    if ((p = strrchr(filename, '/')) != 0)
-        filename = p + 1;
-#endif
-#ifdef VMS
-    filename = vms_basename(filename);
-    /* vms_basename strips off 'type' suffix as well as path and version;
-       we want to put suffix back (".c" assumed); since it always returns
-       a pointer to a static buffer, we can safely modify its result */
-    Strcat((char *) filename, ".c");
-#endif
+    /* strip filename's path if present */
+    filename = nh_basename(filename, TRUE);
 
     /*
      * Wildcard match will only work if there's a single pattern (which
diff --git a/sys/vms/vmsfiles.c b/sys/vms/vmsfiles.c
index 9088a9d9c..e2ae8d657 100644
--- a/sys/vms/vmsfiles.c
+++ b/sys/vms/vmsfiles.c
@@ -305,10 +305,10 @@ static char base_name[NAM$C_MAXRSS + 1];
 
 /* return a copy of the 'base' portion of a filename */
 char *
-vms_basename(const char *name)
+vms_basename(const char *name, boolean keep_suffix)
 {
     unsigned len;
-    char *base, *base_p;
+    char *base, *base_p, *xtra_p;
     register const char *name_p;
 
     /* skip directory/path */
@@ -323,10 +323,14 @@ vms_basename(const char *name)
     if (!*name)
         name = "."; /* this should never happen */
 
-    /* find extension/version and derive length of basename */
-    if ((name_p = strchr(name, '.')) == 0 || name_p == name)
-        name_p = strchr(name, ';');
-    len = (name_p && name_p > name) ? name_p - name : strlen(name);
+    /* find extension/version and derive length of basename;
+       for 'keep_suffix', this won't be accurate if version number is
+       present and delimited by dot instead of semi-colon, but normal
+       usage is for DEBUGFILES and that uses compiler supplied name */
+    name_p = strrchr(name, ';');
+    if (!keep_suffix && (xtra_p = strrchr(name, '.')) != 0)
+        name_p = xtra_p;
+    len = (name_p && name_p > name) ? name_p - name : (unsigned) strlen(name);
 
     /* return a lowercase copy of the name in a private static buffer */
     base = strncpy(base_name, name, len);