READDIR_R(3) Linux Programmer's Manual READDIR_R(3) NAME readdir_r - read a directory SYNOPSIS #include int readdir_r(DIR *dirp, struct dirent *entry, struct dirent **result); Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)): readdir_r(): _POSIX_C_SOURCE || /* Glibc versions <= 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE DESCRIPTION This function is deprecated; use readdir(3) instead. The readdir_r() function was invented as a reentrant version of read- dir(3). It reads the next directory entry from the directory stream dirp, and returns it in the caller-allocated buffer pointed to by entry. For details of the dirent structure, see readdir(3). A pointer to the returned buffer is placed in *result; if the end of the directory stream was encountered, then NULL is instead returned in *result. It is recommended that applications use readdir(3) instead of read- dir_r(). Furthermore, since version 2.24, glibc deprecates read- dir_r(). The reasons are as follows: * On systems where NAME_MAX is undefined, calling readdir_r() may be unsafe because the interface does not allow the caller to specify the length of the buffer used for the returned directory entry. * On some systems, readdir_r() can't read directory entries with very long names. When the glibc implementation encounters such a name, readdir_r() fails with the error ENAMETOOLONG after the final direc- tory entry has been read. On some other systems, readdir_r() may return a success status, but the returned d_name field may not be null terminated or may be truncated. * In the current POSIX.1 specification (POSIX.1-2008), readdir(3) is not required to be thread-safe. However, in modern implementations (including the glibc implementation), concurrent calls to readdir(3) that specify different directory streams are thread-safe. There- fore, the use of readdir_r() is generally unnecessary in multi- threaded programs. In cases where multiple threads must read from the same directory stream, using readdir(3) with external synchro- nization is still preferable to the use of readdir_r(), for the rea- sons given in the points above. * It is expected that a future version of POSIX.1 will make read- dir_r() obsolete, and require that readdir(3) be thread-safe when concurrently employed on different directory streams. RETURN VALUE The readdir_r() function returns 0 on success. On error, it returns a positive error number (listed under ERRORS). If the end of the direc- tory stream is reached, readdir_r() returns 0, and returns NULL in *result. ERRORS EBADF Invalid directory stream descriptor dirp. ENAMETOOLONG A directory entry whose name was too long to be read was encoun- tered. ATTRIBUTES For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7). +------------+---------------+---------+ |Interface | Attribute | Value | +------------+---------------+---------+ |readdir_r() | Thread safety | MT-Safe | +------------+---------------+---------+ CONFORMING TO POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008. SEE ALSO readdir(3) COLOPHON This page is part of release 4.16 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/. 2016-03-01 READDIR_R(3)