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PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface
may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface
may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
nftw — walk a file tree
SYNOPSIS
#include <ftw.h>
int nftw(const char *path, int (*fn)(const char *,
const struct stat *, int, struct FTW *), int fd_limit, int flags);
DESCRIPTION
The nftw() function shall recursively descend the directory hierarchy rooted in path. The nftw()
function has a similar effect to ftw() except that it takes an additional argument flags, which is a
bitwise-inclusive OR of zero or more of the following flags:
FTW_CHDIR If set, nftw() shall change the current working directory to each directory as it reports
files in that directory. If clear, nftw() shall not change the current working directory.
FTW_DEPTH If set, nftw() shall report all files in a directory before reporting the directory itself.
If clear, nftw() shall report any directory before reporting the files in that directory.
FTW_MOUNT If set, nftw() shall only report files in the same file system as path. If clear, nftw()
shall report all files encountered during the walk.
FTW_PHYS If set, nftw() shall perform a physical walk and shall not follow symbolic links.
If FTW_PHYS is clear and FTW_DEPTH is set, nftw() shall follow links instead of reporting them, but shall
not report any directory that would be a descendant of itself. If FTW_PHYS is clear and FTW_DEPTH is
clear, nftw() shall follow links instead of reporting them, but shall not report the contents of any
directory that would be a descendant of itself.
At each file it encounters, nftw() shall call the user-supplied function fn with four arguments:
* The first argument is the pathname of the object.
* The second argument is a pointer to the stat buffer containing information on the object, filled in
as if fstatat(), stat(), or lstat() had been called to retrieve the information.
* The third argument is an integer giving additional information. Its value is one of the following:
FTW_D The object is a directory.
FTW_DNR The object is a directory that cannot be read. The fn function shall not be called for any
of its descendants.
FTW_DP The object is a directory and subdirectories have been visited. (This condition shall only
occur if the FTW_DEPTH flag is included in flags.)
FTW_F The object is a non-directory file.
FTW_NS The stat() function failed on the object because of lack of appropriate permission. The
stat buffer passed to fn is undefined. Failure of stat() for any other reason is considered
an error and nftw() shall return −1.
FTW_SL The object is a symbolic link. (This condition shall only occur if the FTW_PHYS flag is
included in flags.)
FTW_SLN The object is a symbolic link that does not name an existing file. (This condition shall
only occur if the FTW_PHYS flag is not included in flags.)
* The fourth argument is a pointer to an FTW structure. The value of base is the offset of the
object's filename in the pathname passed as the first argument to fn. The value of level indicates
depth relative to the root of the walk, where the root level is 0.
The results are unspecified if the application-supplied fn function does not preserve the current working
directory.
The argument fd_limit sets the maximum number of file descriptors that shall be used by nftw() while
traversing the file tree. At most one file descriptor shall be used for each directory level.
The nftw() function need not be thread-safe.
RETURN VALUE
The nftw() function shall continue until the first of the following conditions occurs:
* An invocation of fn shall return a non-zero value, in which case nftw() shall return that value.
* The nftw() function detects an error other than [EACCES] (see FTW_DNR and FTW_NS above), in which
case nftw() shall return −1 and set errno to indicate the error.
* The tree is exhausted, in which case nftw() shall return 0.
ERRORS
The nftw() function shall fail if:
EACCES Search permission is denied for any component of path or read permission is denied for path, or fn
returns −1 and does not reset errno.
ELOOP A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of the path argument.
ENAMETOOLONG
The length of a component of a pathname is longer than {NAME_MAX}.
ENOENT A component of path does not name an existing file or path is an empty string.
ENOTDIR
A component of path names an existing file that is neither a directory nor a symbolic link to a
directory.
EOVERFLOW
A field in the stat structure cannot be represented correctly in the current programming
environment for one or more files found in the file hierarchy.
The nftw() function may fail if:
ELOOP More than {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic links were encountered during resolution of the path argument.
EMFILE All file descriptors available to the process are currently open.
ENAMETOOLONG
The length of a pathname exceeds {PATH_MAX}, or pathname resolution of a symbolic link produced an
intermediate result with a length that exceeds {PATH_MAX}.
ENFILE Too many files are currently open in the system.
In addition, errno may be set if the function pointed to by fn causes errno to be set.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
The following program traverses the directory tree under the path named in its first command-line
argument, or under the current directory if no argument is supplied. It displays various information
about each file. The second command-line argument can be used to specify characters that control the
value assigned to the flags argument when calling nftw().
#include <ftw.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdint.h>
static int
display_info(const char *fpath, const struct stat *sb,
int tflag, struct FTW *ftwbuf)
{
printf("%-3s %2d %7jd %-40s %d %s\n",
(tflag == FTW_D) ? "d" : (tflag == FTW_DNR) ? "dnr" :
(tflag == FTW_DP) ? "dp" : (tflag == FTW_F) ?
(S_ISBLK(sb->st_mode) ? "f b" :
S_ISCHR(sb->st_mode) ? "f c" :
S_ISFIFO(sb->st_mode) ? "f p" :
S_ISREG(sb->st_mode) ? "f r" :
S_ISSOCK(sb->st_mode) ? "f s" : "f ?") :
(tflag == FTW_NS) ? "ns" : (tflag == FTW_SL) ? "sl" :
(tflag == FTW_SLN) ? "sln" : "?",
ftwbuf->level, (intmax_t) sb->st_size,
fpath, ftwbuf->base, fpath + ftwbuf->base);
return 0; /* To tell nftw() to continue */
}
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int flags = 0;
if (argc > 2 && strchr(argv[2], 'd') != NULL)
flags |= FTW_DEPTH;
if (argc > 2 && strchr(argv[2], 'p') != NULL)
flags |= FTW_PHYS;
if (nftw((argc < 2) ? "." : argv[1], display_info, 20, flags) == -1)
{
perror("nftw");
exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
APPLICATION USAGE
The nftw() function may allocate dynamic storage during its operation. If nftw() is forcibly terminated,
such as by longjmp() or siglongjmp() being executed by the function pointed to by fn or an interrupt
routine, nftw() does not have a chance to free that storage, so it remains permanently allocated. A safe
way to handle interrupts is to store the fact that an interrupt has occurred, and arrange to have the
function pointed to by fn return a non-zero value at its next invocation.
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
fdopendir(), fstatat(), readdir()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <ftw.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition,
Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc
and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the event
of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced
during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .