xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/gen/directory.3 (revision 6e660824a82f590542932de52f128db584029893)
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28.\"     @(#)directory.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd July 5, 2012
32.Dt DIRECTORY 3
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm opendir ,
36.Nm fdopendir ,
37.Nm readdir ,
38.Nm readdir_r ,
39.Nm telldir ,
40.Nm seekdir ,
41.Nm rewinddir ,
42.Nm closedir ,
43.Nm dirfd
44.Nd directory operations
45.Sh LIBRARY
46.Lb libc
47.Sh SYNOPSIS
48.In sys/types.h
49.In dirent.h
50.Ft DIR *
51.Fn opendir "const char *filename"
52.Ft DIR *
53.Fn fdopendir "int fd"
54.Ft struct dirent *
55.Fn readdir "DIR *dirp"
56.Ft int
57.Fn readdir_r "DIR *dirp" "struct dirent *entry" "struct dirent **result"
58.Ft long
59.Fn telldir "DIR *dirp"
60.Ft void
61.Fn seekdir "DIR *dirp" "long loc"
62.Ft void
63.Fn rewinddir "DIR *dirp"
64.Ft int
65.Fn closedir "DIR *dirp"
66.Ft int
67.Fn dirfd "DIR *dirp"
68.Sh DESCRIPTION
69The
70.Fn opendir
71function
72opens the directory named by
73.Fa filename ,
74associates a
75.Em directory stream
76with it
77and
78returns a pointer to be used to identify the
79.Em directory stream
80in subsequent operations.
81The pointer
82.Dv NULL
83is returned if
84.Fa filename
85cannot be accessed, or if it cannot
86.Xr malloc 3
87enough memory to hold the whole thing.
88.Pp
89The
90.Fn fdopendir
91function is equivalent to the
92.Fn opendir
93function except that the directory is specified by a file descriptor
94.Fa fd
95rather than by a name.
96The file offset associated with the file descriptor at the time of the call
97determines which entries are returned.
98.Pp
99Upon successful return from
100.Fn fdopendir ,
101the file descriptor is under the control of the system,
102and if any attempt is made to close the file descriptor,
103or to modify the state of the associated description other than by means
104of
105.Fn closedir ,
106.Fn readdir ,
107.Fn readdir_r ,
108or
109.Fn rewinddir ,
110the behavior is undefined.
111Upon calling
112.Fn closedir
113the file descriptor is closed.
114The
115.Dv FD_CLOEXEC
116flag is set on the file descriptor by a successful call to
117.Fn fdopendir .
118.Pp
119The
120.Fn readdir
121function
122returns a pointer to the next directory entry.
123It returns
124.Dv NULL
125upon reaching the end of the directory or on error.
126In the event of an error,
127.Va errno
128may be set to any of the values documented for the
129.Xr getdirentries 2
130system call.
131.Pp
132The
133.Fn readdir_r
134function
135provides the same functionality as
136.Fn readdir ,
137but the caller must provide a directory
138.Fa entry
139buffer to store the results in.
140If the read succeeds,
141.Fa result
142is pointed at the
143.Fa entry ;
144upon reaching the end of the directory
145.Fa result
146is set to
147.Dv NULL .
148The
149.Fn readdir_r
150function
151returns 0 on success or an error number to indicate failure.
152.Pp
153The
154.Fn telldir
155function
156returns a token representing the current location associated with the named
157.Em directory stream .
158Values returned by
159.Fn telldir
160are good only for the lifetime of the
161.Dv DIR
162pointer,
163.Fa dirp ,
164from which they are derived.
165If the directory is closed and then
166reopened, prior values returned by
167.Fn telldir
168will no longer be valid.
169.Pp
170The
171.Fn seekdir
172function
173sets the position of the next
174.Fn readdir
175operation on the
176.Em directory stream .
177The new position reverts to the one associated with the
178.Em directory stream
179when the
180.Fn telldir
181operation was performed.
182State associated with the token returned by
183.Fn telldir is freed when it is passed to
184.Fn seekdir .
185If you wish return to the same location again,
186then you must create a new token with another
187.Fn telldir
188call.
189.Pp
190The
191.Fn rewinddir
192function
193resets the position of the named
194.Em directory stream
195to the beginning of the directory.
196.Pp
197The
198.Fn closedir
199function
200closes the named
201.Em directory stream
202and frees the structure associated with the
203.Fa dirp
204pointer,
205returning 0 on success.
206On failure, \-1 is returned and the global variable
207.Va errno
208is set to indicate the error.
209.Pp
210The
211.Fn dirfd
212function
213returns the integer file descriptor associated with the named
214.Em directory stream ,
215see
216.Xr open 2 .
217.Pp
218Sample code which searches a directory for entry ``name'' is:
219.Bd -literal -offset indent
220dirp = opendir(".");
221if (dirp == NULL)
222	return (ERROR);
223len = strlen(name);
224while ((dp = readdir(dirp)) != NULL) {
225	if (dp->d_namlen == len && strcmp(dp->d_name, name) == 0) {
226		(void)closedir(dirp);
227		return (FOUND);
228	}
229}
230(void)closedir(dirp);
231return (NOT_FOUND);
232.Ed
233.Sh SEE ALSO
234.Xr close 2 ,
235.Xr lseek 2 ,
236.Xr open 2 ,
237.Xr read 2 ,
238.Xr dir 5
239.Sh HISTORY
240The
241.Fn opendir ,
242.Fn readdir ,
243.Fn telldir ,
244.Fn seekdir ,
245.Fn rewinddir ,
246.Fn closedir ,
247and
248.Fn dirfd
249functions appeared in
250.Bx 4.2 .
251The
252.Fn fdopendir
253function appeared in
254.Fx 8.0 .
255.Sh BUGS
256The invalidation of
257.Fn telldir
258tokens when calling
259.Fn seekdir
260is non-standard.
261