GETDENTS(2)        INTERACTIVE UNIX System ()         GETDENTS(2)



          NAME
               getdents - read directory entries and put in a file-system-
               independent format

          SYNOPSIS
               #include <sys/dirent.h>

               int getdents (fildes, buf, nbyte)
               int fildes;
               char *buf;
               unsigned nbyte;

          DESCRIPTION
               The fildes argument is a file descriptor obtained from an
               open(2) or dup(2) system call.

               The getdents system call attempts to read nbyte bytes from
               the directory associated with fildes and to format them as
               file system independent directory entries in the buffer
               pointed to by buf.  Since the file-system-independent direc-
               tory entries are of variable length, in most cases the
               actual number of bytes returned will be strictly less than
               nbyte.

               The file-system-independent directory entry is specified by
               the dirent structure.  For a description of this see
               dirent(4).

               On devices capable of seeking, getdents starts at a position
               in the file given by the file pointer associated with
               fildes.  Upon return from getdents, the file pointer is
               incremented to point to the next directory entry.

               This system call was developed in order to implement the
               readdir(3X) routine [for a description see directory(3X)],
               and should not be used for other purposes.

               The getdents system call will fail if one or more of the
               following is true:

               [EBADF]        Fildes is not a valid file descriptor open
                              for reading.

               [EFAULT]       Buf points outside the allocated address
                              space.

               [EINVAL]       nbyte is not large enough for one directory
                              entry.

               [ENOENT]       The current file pointer for the directory is
                              not located at a valid entry.

               [ENOLINK]      Fildes points to a remote machine and the


          Rev. C Software Development Set                            Page 1

          GETDENTS(2)        INTERACTIVE UNIX System ()         GETDENTS(2)



                              link to that machine is no longer active.

               [ENOTDIR]      Fildes is not a directory.

               [EIO]          An I/O error occurred while accessing the
                              file system.

          SEE ALSO
               directory(3X), dirent(4).

          DIAGNOSTICS
               Upon successful completion a non-negative integer is
               returned, indicating the number of bytes actually read.  A
               value of 0 indicates the end of the directory has been
               reached.  If the system call failed, a -1 is returned, and
               errno is set to indicate the error.







































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