Opening a Directory (The GNU C Library)

#### 14.3.2 Opening a Directory Stream ¶

This section describes how to open a directory stream. All the symbols are declared in the header file `dirent.h`.

Data Type: DIR ¶

  The `DIR` data type represents a directory stream.

You shouldn’t ever allocate objects of the `struct dirent` or `DIR` data types, since the directory access functions do that for you. Instead, you refer to these objects using the pointers returned by the following functions.

Directory streams are a high-level interface. On Linux, alternative interfaces for accessing directories using file descriptors are available. See Low-level Directory Access.

Function: `DIR *` opendir `(const char *dirname)` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem fd | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  The `opendir` function opens and returns a directory stream for reading the directory whose file name is dirname. The stream has type `DIR *`.

  If unsuccessful, `opendir` returns a null pointer. In addition to the usual file name errors (see File Name Errors), the following `errno` error conditions are defined for this function:

  `EACCES`

    Read permission is denied for the directory named by `dirname`.

  `EMFILE`

    The process has too many files open.

  `ENFILE`

    The entire system, or perhaps the file system which contains the directory, cannot support any additional open files at the moment. (This problem cannot happen on GNU/Hurd systems.)

  `ENOMEM`

    Not enough memory available.

  The `DIR` type is typically implemented using a file descriptor, and the `opendir` function in terms of the `open` function. See Low-Level Input/Output. Directory streams and the underlying file descriptors are closed on `exec` (see Executing a File).

The directory which is opened for reading by `opendir` is identified by the name. In some situations this is not sufficient. Or the way `opendir` implicitly creates a file descriptor for the directory is not the way a program might want it. In these cases an alternative interface can be used.

Function: `DIR *` fdopendir `(int fd)` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem fd | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  The `fdopendir` function works just like `opendir` but instead of taking a file name and opening a file descriptor for the directory the caller is required to provide a file descriptor. This file descriptor is then used in subsequent uses of the returned directory stream object.

  The caller must make sure the file descriptor is associated with a directory and it allows reading.

  If the `fdopendir` call returns successfully the file descriptor is now under the control of the system. It can be used in the same way the descriptor implicitly created by `opendir` can be used but the program must not close the descriptor.

  In case the function is unsuccessful it returns a null pointer and the file descriptor remains to be usable by the program. The following `errno` error conditions are defined for this function:

  `EBADF`

    The file descriptor is not valid.

  `ENOTDIR`

    The file descriptor is not associated with a directory.

  `EINVAL`

    The descriptor does not allow reading the directory content.

  `ENOMEM`

    Not enough memory available.

In some situations it can be desirable to get hold of the file descriptor which is created by the `opendir` call. For instance, to switch the current working directory to the directory just read the `fchdir` function could be used. Historically the `DIR` type was exposed and programs could access the fields. This does not happen in the GNU C Library. Instead a separate function is provided to allow access.

Function: `int` dirfd `(DIR *dirstream)` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  The function `dirfd` returns the file descriptor associated with the directory stream dirstream. This descriptor can be used until the directory is closed with `closedir`. If the directory stream implementation is not using file descriptors the return value is `-1`.