NetBSD-5.0.2/lib/libc/sys/getdents.2
.\" $NetBSD: getdents.2,v 1.18 2005/12/26 19:40:15 perry Exp $
.\"
.\" Copyright (c) 1989, 1991, 1993
.\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
.\" are met:
.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
.\" without specific prior written permission.
.\"
.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
.\"
.\" @(#)getdirentries.2 8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
.\"
.Dd September 6, 2005
.Dt GETDENTS 2
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm getdents
.Nd "get directory entries in a filesystem independent format"
.Sh LIBRARY
.Lb libc
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.In dirent.h
.Ft int
.Fn getdents "int fd" "char *buf" "size_t nbytes"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Fn getdents
reads directory entries from the directory
referenced by the file descriptor
.Fa fd
into the buffer pointed to by
.Fa buf ,
in a filesystem independent format.
Up to
.Fa nbytes
of data will be transferred.
.Fa nbytes
must be greater than or equal to the
block size associated with the file,
see
.Xr stat 2 .
Some filesystems may not support
.Fn getdents
with buffers smaller than this size.
.Pp
The data in the buffer is a series of
.Em dirent
structures each containing the following entries:
.Bd -literal -offset indent
ino_t d_fileno;
uint16_t d_reclen;
uint16_t d_namlen;
uint8_t d_type;
char d_name[MAXNAMLEN + 1]; /* see below */
.Ed
.Pp
The
.Fa d_fileno
entry is a number which is unique for each
distinct file in the filesystem.
Files that are linked by hard links (see
.Xr link 2 )
have the same
.Fa d_fileno .
If
.Fa d_fileno
is zero, the entry refers to a deleted file.
.Pp
The
.Fa d_reclen
entry is the length, in bytes, of the directory record.
.Pp
The
.Fa d_type
is the type of file, where the following are possible types:
.Dv DT_UNKNOWN ,
.Dv DT_FIFO ,
.Dv DT_CHR ,
.Dv DT_DIR ,
.Dv DT_BLK ,
.Dv DT_REG ,
.Dv DT_LNK ,
.Dv DT_SOCK ,
and
.Dv DT_WHT .
.Pp
The
.Fa d_namlen
entry specifies the length of the file name excluding the null byte.
Thus the actual size of
.Fa d_name
may vary from 1 to
.Dv MAXNAMLEN
\&+ 1.
.Pp
The
.Fa d_name
entry contains a null terminated file name.
.Pp
Entries may be separated by extra space.
The
.Fa d_reclen
entry may be used as an offset from the start of a
.Fa dirent
structure to the next structure, if any.
.Pp
The actual number of bytes transferred is returned.
The current position pointer associated with
.Fa fd
is set to point to the next block of entries.
The pointer may not advance by the number of bytes returned by
.Fn getdents .
A value of zero is returned when
the end of the directory has been reached.
.Pp
The current position pointer may be set and retrieved by
.Xr lseek 2 .
The current position pointer should only be set to a value returned by
.Xr lseek 2 ,
or zero.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
If successful, the number of bytes actually transferred is returned.
Otherwise, \-1 is returned and the global variable
.Va errno
is set to indicate the error.
.Sh ERRORS
.Fn getdents
will fail if:
.Bl -tag -width Er
.It Bq Er EBADF
.Fa fd
is not a valid file descriptor open for reading.
.It Bq Er EFAULT
Either
.Fa buf
points outside the allocated address space.
.It Bq Er EIO
An
.Tn I/O
error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
.It Bq Er EINVAL
A directory was being read on NFS, but it was modified on the server while
it was being read.
.El
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr lseek 2 ,
.Xr open 2 ,
.Xr dirent 5
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Fn getdents
function first appeared in
.Nx 1.3 .