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 representing 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.

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 portability 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. On error, errno is set appropriately.

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)