.\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software .\" must display the following acknowledgement: .\" This product includes software developed by the University of .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)directory.3 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93 .\" $FreeBSD: src/lib/libc/gen/directory.3,v 1.12 2001/10/01 16:08:50 ru Exp $ .\" .Dd June 4, 1993 .Dt DIRECTORY 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm opendir , .Nm readdir , .Nm readdir_r , .Nm telldir , .Nm seekdir , .Nm rewinddir , .Nm closedir , .Nm dirfd .Nd directory operations .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In sys/types.h .In dirent.h .Ft DIR * .Fn opendir "const char *filename" .Ft struct dirent * .Fn readdir "DIR *dirp" .Ft int .Fn readdir_r "DIR *dirp" "struct dirent *entry" "struct dirent **result" .Ft long .Fn telldir "DIR *dirp" .Ft void .Fn seekdir "DIR *dirp" "long loc" .Ft void .Fn rewinddir "DIR *dirp" .Ft int .Fn closedir "DIR *dirp" .Ft int .Fn dirfd "DIR *dirp" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn opendir function opens the directory named by .Fa filename , associates a .Em directory stream with it and returns a pointer to be used to identify the .Em directory stream in subsequent operations. The pointer .Dv NULL is returned if .Fa filename cannot be accessed, or if it cannot .Xr malloc 3 enough memory to hold the whole thing. .Pp The .Fn readdir function returns a pointer to the next directory entry. It returns .Dv NULL upon reaching the end of the directory or detecting an invalid .Fn seekdir operation. .Pp .Fn readdir_r provides the same functionality as .Fn readdir , but the caller must provide a directory .Fa entry buffer to store the results in. If the read succeeds, .Fa result is pointed at the .Fa entry ; upon reaching the end of the directory .Fa result is set to .Dv NULL . .Fn readdir_r returns 0 on success or an error number to indicate failure. .Pp The .Fn telldir function returns the current location associated with the named .Em directory stream . Values returned by .Fn telldir are good only for the lifetime of the .Dv DIR pointer, .Fa dirp , from which they are derived. If the directory is closed and then reopened, prior values returned by .Fn telldir will no longer be valid. .Pp The .Fn seekdir function sets the position of the next .Fn readdir operation on the .Em directory stream . The new position reverts to the one associated with the .Em directory stream when the .Fn telldir operation was performed. .Pp The .Fn rewinddir function resets the position of the named .Em directory stream to the beginning of the directory. .Pp The .Fn closedir function closes the named .Em directory stream and frees the structure associated with the .Fa dirp pointer, returning 0 on success. On failure, \-1 is returned and the global variable .Va errno is set to indicate the error. .Pp The .Fn dirfd function returns the integer file descriptor associated with the named .Em directory stream , see .Xr open 2 . .Pp Sample code which searches a directory for entry ``name'' is: .Bd -literal -offset indent len = strlen(name); dirp = opendir("."); while ((dp = readdir(dirp)) != NULL) if (dp->d_namlen == len && !strcmp(dp->d_name, name)) { (void)closedir(dirp); return FOUND; } (void)closedir(dirp); return NOT_FOUND; .Ed .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr close 2 , .Xr lseek 2 , .Xr open 2 , .Xr read 2 , .Xr dir 5 .Sh HISTORY The .Fn opendir , .Fn readdir , .Fn telldir , .Fn seekdir , .Fn rewinddir , .Fn closedir , and .Fn dirfd functions appeared in .Bx 4.2 .