readdir function

C

Function

Reference manual

@see opendir function, closedir function

The readdir function reads the next entry from the directory stream obtained from the opendir function. It returns a pointer to a structure representing the directory entry.

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

Syntax

#include <dirent.h>

struct dirent *readdir(DIR *dirp);

Parameters

• dirp: A pointer to the DIR type representing the directory stream.

Return value

• The function returns a pointer to a structure of type struct dirent representing a directory entry.
• When the end of the directory stream is reached the function returns a null pointer.

Usage example

In the following example we use the readdir function to output the name of all the files in a directory.

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

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

    directoryPath = "/path/to/directory";
    dirStream = opendir(directoryPath);
    if (dirStream != NULL)
    {
        while ((dirEntry = readdir(dirStream)) != NULL)
        {
            printf("File name: %s\n", dirEntry->d_name);
        }
        closedir(dirStream);
    }
    else
    {
        perror("Error opening directory stream");
    }
    return (0);
}