opendir function

C

Function

Reference manual

@see readdir function, closedir function

The opendir function opens a directory stream corresponding to the directory named by the given path. It returns a pointer to the opened directory stream, which can subsequently be used in calls to the readdir function.

Remember to close the directory with the closedir function once you are done with it.

Syntax

#include <dirent.h>

DIR *opendir(const char *dirname);

Parameters

• dirname: A pointer to a null-terminated string containing the path to the directory that will be opened.

Return value

• If the directory stream is successfully opened, the function returns a pointer to the DIR type representing the directory stream.
• If an error occurs, the function returns a null pointer.

Usage example

In the following example we use the opendir function to open a directory and output if it was successfully opened or not.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <dirent.h>

int main(void) {
    const char *directoryPath;
    DIR *dirStream;

    directoryPath = "/path/to/directory";
    dirStream = opendir(directoryPath);
    if (dirStream != NULL)
    {
        printf("Directory stream opened successfully.\n");
        closedir(dirStream);
    }
    else
    {
        perror("Error opening directory stream");
    }
    return (0);
}