getdents

GETDENTS(2)		  Linux Programmer’s Manual		  GETDENTS(2)



NAME
       getdents - get directory entries

SYNOPSIS
       #include <unistd.h>
       #include <linux/types.h>
       #include <linux/dirent.h>
       #include <linux/unistd.h>

       _syscall3(int, getdents, uint, fd, struct dirent *, dirp, uint, count);

       int getdents(unsigned int fd, struct dirent *dirp, unsigned int count);

DESCRIPTION
       This  is	 not  the function you are interested in.  Look at readdir(3)
       for the POSIX conforming C library interface.  This page documents the
       bare kernel system call interface.

       The  system  call  getdents  reads  several dirent structures from the
       directory pointed at by fd into the memory area pointed	to  by	dirp.
       The parameter count is the size of the memory area.

       The dirent structure is declared as follows:

	      struct dirent
	      {
		  long d_ino;		      /* inode number */
		  off_t d_off;		      /* offset to next dirent */
		  unsigned short d_reclen;    /* length of this dirent */
		  char d_name [NAME_MAX+1];   /* file name (null-terminated) */
	      }

       d_ino is an inode number.  d_off is the distance from the start of the
       directory to the start of the next dirent.  d_reclen is	the  size  of
       this entire dirent.  d_name is a null-terminated file name.

       This call supersedes readdir(2).

RETURN VALUE
       On  success,  the  number of bytes read is returned.  On end of direc-
       tory, 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,  SVID.  SVr4 documents additional ENOLINK, EIO error conditions.

SEE ALSO
       readdir(2), readdir(3)



Linux 1.3.6			  1995-07-22			  GETDENTS(2)