getdents(2)
NAME
getdents, getdents64 - get directory entries
SYNOPSIS
int getdents(unsigned int fd, struct linux_dirent *dirp,
unsigned int count);
int getdents64(unsigned int fd, struct linux_dirent64 *dirp,
unsigned int count);
Note: There are no glibc wrappers for these system calls; see NOTES.
DESCRIPTION
These are not the interfaces you are interested in. Look at readdir(3) for the POSIX-conforming C library interface. This page documents the bare kernel system call interfaces. getdents() The system call getdents() reads several linux_dirent structures from the directory referred to by the open file descriptor fd into the buffer pointed to by dirp. The argument count specifies the size of that buffer. The linux_dirent structure is declared as follows: struct linux_dirent { unsigned long d_ino; /* Inode number */ unsigned long d_off; /* Offset to next linux_dirent */ unsigned short d_reclen; /* Length of this linux_dirent */ char d_name[]; /* Filename (null-terminated) */ /* length is actually (d_reclen - 2 - offsetof(struct linux_dirent, d_name)) */ /* char pad; // Zero padding byte char d_type; // File type (only since Linux // 2.6.4); offset is (d_reclen - 1) */ } d_ino is an inode number. d_off is the distance from the start of the directory to the start of the next linux_dirent. d_reclen is the size of this entire linux_dirent. d_name is a null-terminated filename. d_type is a byte at the end of the structure that indicates the file type. It contains one of the following values (defined in <dirent.h>): DT_BLK This is a block device. DT_CHR This is a character device. DT_DIR This is a directory. DT_FIFO This is a named pipe (FIFO). DT_LNK This is a symbolic link. DT_REG This is a regular file. DT_SOCK This is a UNIX domain socket. DT_UNKNOWN The file type is unknown. The d_type field is implemented since Linux 2.6.4. It occupies a space that was previously a zero-filled padding byte in the linux_dirent structure. Thus, on kernels up to and including 2.6.3, attempting to access this field always provides the value 0 (DT_UNKNOWN). Currently, only some filesystems (among them: Btrfs, ext2, ext3, and ext4) have full support for returning the file type in d_type. All applications must properly handle a return of DT_UNKNOWN. getdents64() The original Linux getdents() system call did not handle large filesystems and large file offsets. Consequently, Linux 2.4 added getdents64(), with wider types for the d_ino and d_off fields. In addition, getdents64() supports an explicit d_type field. The getdents64() system call is like getdents(), except that its second argument is a pointer to a buffer containing structures of the following type: struct linux_dirent64 { ino64_t d_ino; /* 64-bit inode number */ off64_t d_off; /* 64-bit offset to next structure */ unsigned short d_reclen; /* Size of this dirent */ unsigned char d_type; /* File type */ char d_name[]; /* Filename (null-terminated) */ };
RETURN VALUE
On success, the number of bytes read is returned. On end of directory, 0 is returned. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.
ERRORS
EBADF Invalid file descriptor fd.
EFAULT Argument points outside the calling process's address space.
EINVAL Result buffer is too small.
ENOENT No such directory.
ENOTDIR
File descriptor does not refer to a directory.
CONFORMING TO
SVr4.
NOTES
Glibc does not provide a wrapper for these system calls; call them using syscall(2). You will need to define the linux_dirent or linux_dirent64 structure yourself. However, you probably want to use readdir(3) instead. These calls supersede readdir(2).
EXAMPLE
The program below demonstrates the use of getdents(). The following
output shows an example of what we see when running this program on an
ext2 directory:
$ ./a.out /testfs/
--------------- nread=120 ---------------
inode# file type d_reclen d_off d_name
2 directory 16 12 .
2 directory 16 24 ..
11 directory 24 44 lost+found
12 regular 16 56 a
228929 directory 16 68 sub
16353 directory 16 80 sub2
130817 directory 16 4096 sub3
Program source
#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <dirent.h> /* Defines DT_* constants */
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/syscall.h>
#define handle_error(msg) \
do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); } while (0)
struct linux_dirent {
long d_ino;
off_t d_off;
unsigned short d_reclen;
char d_name[];
};
#define BUF_SIZE 1024
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int fd, nread;
char buf[BUF_SIZE];
struct linux_dirent *d;
int bpos;
char d_type;
fd = open(argc > 1 ? argv[1] : ".", O_RDONLY | O_DIRECTORY);
if (fd == -1)
handle_error("open");
for ( ; ; ) {
nread = syscall(SYS_getdents, fd, buf, BUF_SIZE);
if (nread == -1)
handle_error("getdents");
if (nread == 0)
break;
printf("--------------- nread=%d ---------------\n", nread);
printf("inode# file type d_reclen d_off d_name\n");
for (bpos = 0; bpos < nread;) {
d = (struct linux_dirent *) (buf + bpos);
printf("%8ld ", d->d_ino);
d_type = *(buf + bpos + d->d_reclen - 1);
printf("%-10s ", (d_type == DT_REG) ? "regular" :
(d_type == DT_DIR) ? "directory" :
(d_type == DT_FIFO) ? "FIFO" :
(d_type == DT_SOCK) ? "socket" :
(d_type == DT_LNK) ? "symlink" :
(d_type == DT_BLK) ? "block dev" :
(d_type == DT_CHR) ? "char dev" : "???");
printf("%4d %10lld %s\n", d->d_reclen,
(long long) d->d_off, d->d_name);
bpos += d->d_reclen;
}
}
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
SEE ALSO
readdir(2), readdir(3)
COLOPHON
This page is part of release 4.09 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, information about reporting bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
Opportunity
Personal Opportunity - Free software gives you access to billions of dollars of software at no cost. Use this software for your business, personal use or to develop a profitable skill. Access to source code provides access to a level of capabilities/information that companies protect though copyrights. Open source is a core component of the Internet and it is available to you. Leverage the billions of dollars in resources and capabilities to build a career, establish a business or change the world. The potential is endless for those who understand the opportunity.
Business Opportunity - Goldman Sachs, IBM and countless large corporations are leveraging open source to reduce costs, develop products and increase their bottom lines. Learn what these companies know about open source and how open source can give you the advantage.
Free Software
Free Software provides computer programs and capabilities at no cost but more importantly, it provides the freedom to run, edit, contribute to, and share the software. The importance of free software is a matter of access, not price. Software at no cost is a benefit but ownership rights to the software and source code is far more significant.
Free Office Software - The Libre Office suite provides top desktop productivity tools for free. This includes, a word processor, spreadsheet, presentation engine, drawing and flowcharting, database and math applications. Libre Office is available for Linux or Windows.
Free Books
The Free Books Library is a collection of thousands of the most popular public domain books in an online readable format. The collection includes great classical literature and more recent works where the U.S. copyright has expired. These books are yours to read and use without restrictions.
Source Code - Want to change a program or know how it works? Open Source provides the source code for its programs so that anyone can use, modify or learn how to write those programs themselves. Visit the GNU source code repositories to download the source.
Education
Study at Harvard, Stanford or MIT - Open edX provides free online courses from Harvard, MIT, Columbia, UC Berkeley and other top Universities. Hundreds of courses for almost all major subjects and course levels. Open edx also offers some paid courses and selected certifications.
Linux Manual Pages - A man or manual page is a form of software documentation found on Linux/Unix operating systems. Topics covered include computer programs (including library and system calls), formal standards and conventions, and even abstract concepts.
