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All Rights Reserved. .\" Copyright (c) 2007, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved. .\" Copyright 2021 Oxide Computer Company .\" .Dd February 25, 2021 .Dt OPENDIR 3C .Os .Sh NAME .Nm opendir , .Nm fdopendir .Nd open directory stream .Sh SYNOPSIS .In sys/types.h .In dirent.h .Ft "DIR *" .Fo opendir .Fa "dirname" .Fc .Ft "DIR *" .Fo fdopendir .Fa "int filedes" .Fc .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn opendir and .Fn fdopendir functions are used to create seekable directory streams that can be used to iterate over the contents of a directory, most commonly with .Xr readdir 3C . One can traverse and seek the stream with functions such as .Xr seekdir 3C , .Xr telldir 3C , and .Xr rewinddir 3C . .Pp The .Fn opendir function creates a directory stream from the path named by .Fa dirname . The .Fn fdopendir function creates a directory stream from an already opened file descriptor, .Fa filedes , that refers to a directory. After successfully calling .Fn fdopendir , .Fa filedes belongs to the system and the application must not modify or close it in any way. .Pp The new directory stream is positioned at the first entry. When finished with the directory stream, the caller is responsible for releasing its resources by calling the .Xr closedir 3C function. This will close the directory stream's underlying file descriptor, including .Fa filedes if .Fn fdopendir was used to create it. In addition, memory associated with the directory stream, such as the .Ft struct dirent returned from .Xr readdir 3C will be invalid once a call to .Xr closedir 3C is completed. .Pp All directory streams are closed upon a successful call to any of the .Xr exec 2 family of functions. The underlying file descriptors behave as though the .Dv FD_CLOEXEC flag was set upon them. .Pp Directory streams created by the .Fn opendir function require an underlying file descriptor. As a result, applications are only able to open up to a total of .Brq Dv OPEN_MAX files and directories. .Sh RETURN VALUES Upon successful completion, the .Fn opendir and .Fn fdopendir functions return a pointer to an object of type Ft DIR . Otherwise, a null pointer is returned and .Va errno is set to indicate the error. .Sh ERRORS The .Fn opendir function will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Er EACCES Search permission is denied for any component of the path prefix of .Fa dirname or read permission is denied for .Fa Idirname . .It Er ELOOP Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving .Fa path . .It Er ENAMETOOLONG The length of the .Fa dirname argument exceeds .Brq Dv PATH_MAX , or a path name component is longer than .Brq Dv NAME_MAX while .Brq Dv _POSIX_NO_TRUNC is in effect. .It Er ENOENT A component of .Fa dirname does not name an existing directory or .Fa dirname is an empty string. .It Er ENOTDIR A component of .Fa dirname is not a directory. .El .Pp The .Fn fdopendir function will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Er ENOTDIR The file descriptor .Fa filedes does not reference a directory. .El .Pp The .Fn opendir function may fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Er EMFILE There are already .Brq Dv OPEN_MAX file descriptors currently open in the calling process. .It Er ENAMETOOLONG Pathname resolution of a symbolic link produced an intermediate result whose length exceeds .Dv PATH_MAX . .It Er ENFILE Too many files are currently open on the system. .El .Sh INTERFACE STABILITY .Sy Committed .Sh MT-LEVEL .Sy Safe .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr lstat 2 , .Xr symlink 2 , .Xr closedir 3C , .Xr readdir 3C , .Xr rewinddir 3C , .Xr seekdir 3C , .Xr telldir 3C , .Xr attributes 5