xref: /netbsd/lib/libc/sys/getdents.2 (revision c4a72b64)
1.\"	$NetBSD: getdents.2,v 1.11 2002/08/12 21:52:37 wiz Exp $
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34.\"	@(#)getdirentries.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
35.\"
36.Dd June 9, 1993
37.Dt GETDENTS 2
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm getdents
41.Nd "get directory entries in a filesystem independent format"
42.Sh LIBRARY
43.Lb libc
44.Sh SYNOPSIS
45.Fd #include \*[Lt]dirent.h\*[Gt]
46.Ft int
47.Fn getdents "int fd" "char *buf" "size_t nbytes"
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49.Fn getdents
50reads directory entries from the directory
51referenced by the file descriptor
52.Fa fd
53into the buffer pointed to by
54.Fa buf ,
55in a filesystem independent format.
56Up to
57.Fa nbytes
58of data will be transferred.
59.Fa nbytes
60must be greater than or equal to the
61block size associated with the file,
62see
63.Xr stat 2 .
64Some filesystems may not support
65.Fn getdents
66with buffers smaller than this size.
67.Pp
68The data in the buffer is a series of
69.Em dirent
70structures each containing the following entries:
71.Bd -literal -offset indent
72u_int32_t	d_fileno;
73u_int16_t	d_reclen;
74u_int8_t	d_type;
75u_int8_t	d_namlen;
76char    	d_name[MAXNAMLEN + 1]; /* see below */
77.Ed
78.Pp
79The
80.Fa d_fileno
81entry is a number which is unique for each
82distinct file in the filesystem.
83Files that are linked by hard links (see
84.Xr link 2 )
85have the same
86.Fa d_fileno .
87If
88.Fa d_fileno
89is zero, the entry refers to a deleted file.
90.Pp
91The
92.Fa d_reclen
93entry is the length, in bytes, of the directory record.
94.Pp
95The
96.Fa d_type
97is the type of file, where the following are possible types:
98.Dv DT_UNKNOWN ,
99.Dv DT_FIFO ,
100.Dv DT_CHR ,
101.Dv DT_DIR ,
102.Dv DT_BLK ,
103.Dv DT_REG ,
104.Dv DT_LNK ,
105.Dv DT_SOCK ,
106and
107.Dv DT_WHT .
108.Pp
109The
110.Fa d_namlen
111entry specifies the length of the file name excluding the null byte.
112Thus the actual size of
113.Fa d_name
114may vary from 1 to
115.Dv MAXNAMLEN
116\&+ 1.
117.Pp
118The
119.Fa d_name
120entry contains a null terminated file name.
121.Pp
122Entries may be separated by extra space.
123The
124.Fa d_reclen
125entry may be used as an offset from the start of a
126.Fa dirent
127structure to the next structure, if any.
128.Pp
129The actual number of bytes transferred is returned.
130The current position pointer associated with
131.Fa fd
132is set to point to the next block of entries.
133The pointer may not advance by the number of bytes returned by
134.Fn getdents .
135A value of zero is returned when
136the end of the directory has been reached.
137.Pp
138The current position pointer may be set and retrieved by
139.Xr lseek 2 .
140The current position pointer should only be set to a value returned by
141.Xr lseek 2 ,
142or zero.
143.Sh RETURN VALUES
144If successful, the number of bytes actually transferred is returned.
145Otherwise, -1 is returned and the global variable
146.Va errno
147is set to indicate the error.
148.Sh ERRORS
149.Fn getdents
150will fail if:
151.Bl -tag -width Er
152.It Bq Er EBADF
153.Fa fd
154is not a valid file descriptor open for reading.
155.It Bq Er EFAULT
156Either
157.Fa buf
158points outside the allocated address space.
159.It Bq Er EIO
160An
161.Tn I/O
162error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
163.It Bq Er EINVAL
164A directory was being read on NFS, but it was modified on the server while
165it was being read.
166.El
167.Sh SEE ALSO
168.Xr lseek 2 ,
169.Xr open 2 ,
170.Xr dirent 5
171.Sh HISTORY
172The
173.Fn getdents
174function first appeared in
175.Nx 1.3 .
176