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

dirfd - get directory stream file descriptor

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <dirent.h>

int dirfd(DIR *dirp);


Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

dirfd(): _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE

The function dirfd() returns the file descriptor associated with the directory stream dirp.

This descriptor is the one used internally by the directory stream. As a result, it is only useful for functions which do not depend on or alter the file position, such as fstat(2) and fchdir(2). It will be automatically closed when closedir(3) is called.

On success, a nonnegative file descriptor is returned. On error, -1 is returned.

POSIX.1-2008 specifies two errors, neither of which is returned by the current implementation.

dirp does not refer to a valid directory stream.
The implementation does not support the association of a file descriptor with a directory.

POSIX.1-2008. This function was a BSD extension, present in 4.3BSD-Reno, not in 4.2BSD.

The prototype for dirfd() is only available if _BSD_SOURCE or _SVID_SOURCE is defined.

open(2), closedir(3), opendir(3), readdir(3), rewinddir(3), scandir(3), seekdir(3), telldir(3)

This page is part of release 3.24 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

2008-08-21 Linux

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