NAME

       dirent.h - format of directory entries

SYNOPSIS

       #include <dirent.h>

DESCRIPTION

       The internal format of directories is unspecified.

       The <dirent.h> header shall define the following type:

       DIR    A type representing a directory stream.

       It shall also define the structure dirent which shall include the following members:

              ino_t  d_ino       File serial number.

              char   d_name[]    Name of entry.

       The type ino_t shall be defined as described in <sys/types.h> .

       The  character  array d_name is of unspecified size, but the number of bytes preceding the
       terminating null byte shall not exceed {NAME_MAX}.

       The following shall be declared as functions and may also be defined as  macros.  Function
       prototypes shall be provided.

              int            closedir(DIR *);
              DIR           *opendir(const char *);
              struct dirent *readdir(DIR *);

              int            readdir_r(DIR *restrict, struct dirent *restrict,
                                 struct dirent **restrict);

              void           rewinddir(DIR *);

              void           seekdir(DIR *, long);
              long           telldir(DIR *);

       The following sections are informative.

APPLICATION USAGE

       None.

RATIONALE

       Information similar to that in the <dirent.h> header is contained in a file <sys/dir.h> in
       4.2 BSD and 4.3 BSD. The equivalent in these implementations of struct  dirent  from  this
       volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 is struct direct. The filename was changed because the name
       <sys/dir.h> was also used in earlier implementations to refer to  definitions  related  to
       the  older  access  method;  this  produced  name conflicts. The name of the structure was
       changed because this volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 does not completely define what is  in
       the structure, so it could be different on some implementations from struct direct.

       The  name  of an array of char of an unspecified size should not be used as an lvalue. Use
       of:

              sizeof(d_name)

       is incorrect; use:

              strlen(d_name)

       instead.

       The array of char d_name is not a fixed size. Implementations may need to  declare  struct
       dirent  with  an  array size for d_name of 1, but the actual number of characters provided
       matches (or only slightly exceeds) the length of the filename.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

       None.

SEE ALSO

       <sys/types.h>  ,  the  System  Interfaces  volume  of  IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,   closedir(),
       opendir(), readdir(), readdir_r(), rewinddir(), seekdir(), telldir()

COPYRIGHT

       Portions  of  this  text  are  reprinted  and  reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std
       1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology  --  Portable  Operating  System
       Interface  (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003 by
       the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and  The  Open  Group.  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.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .