readdir

READDIR(3)                 Linux Programmer's Manual                READDIR(3)



NAME
       readdir - read a directory

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/types.h>

       #include <dirent.h>

       struct dirent *readdir(DIR *dir);

DESCRIPTION
       The  readdir()  function returns a pointer to a dirent structure repre-
       senting the next directory entry in the directory stream pointed to  by
       dir.   It  returns  NULL  on  reaching  the  end-of-file or if an error
       occurred.

       The dirent structure is defined as follows:
              struct dirent {
              #if defined _FILE_OFFSET_BITS && _FILE_OFFSET_BITS == 64
                  ino64_t             d_ino;          /* inode number */
                  off64_t             d_off;          /* offset to the next dirent */
              #else
                  ino_t               d_ino;          /* inode number */
                  off_t               d_off;          /* offset to the next dirent */
              #endif
                  unsigned short int  d_reclen;       /* length of this record */
                  unsigned char       d_type;         /* type of file */
                  char                d_name[256];    /* filename */
              };

       According to POSIX, the dirent structure contains a field char d_name[]
       of  unspecified  size,  with  at most NAME_MAX characters preceding the
       terminating null character.  Use of other fields will harm  the  porta-
       bility  of  your  programs.  POSIX 1003.1-2001 also documents the field
       ino_t d_ino as an XSI extension.

       The data returned by readdir() may be overwritten by  subsequent  calls
       to readdir() for the same directory stream.

RETURN VALUE
       The readdir() function returns a pointer to a dirent structure, or NULL
       if an error occurs or end-of-file is reached.

ERRORS
       EBADF  Invalid directory stream descriptor dir.

CONFORMING TO
       SVID 3, BSD 4.3, POSIX 1003.1-2001

SEE ALSO
       read(2), closedir(3), dirfd(3), opendir(3),  rewinddir(3),  scandir(3),
       seekdir(3), telldir(3)



                                  1996-04-22                        READDIR(3)