'\" t .\" Copyright (C) 1993 David Metcalfe (david@prism.demon.co.uk) .\" .\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft .\" .\" References consulted: .\" Linux libc source code .\" Lewine's _POSIX Programmer's Guide_ (O'Reilly & Associates, 1991) .\" 386BSD man pages .\" Modified Sat Jul 24 18:46:01 1993 by Rik Faith (faith@cs.unc.edu) .\" Modified 11 June 1995 by Andries Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl) .\" 2007-07-30 Ulrich Drepper : document fdopendir(). .TH opendir 3 2023-10-31 "Linux man-pages 6.06" .SH NAME opendir, fdopendir \- open a directory .SH LIBRARY Standard C library .RI ( libc ", " \-lc ) .SH SYNOPSIS .nf .B #include .B #include .P .BI "DIR *opendir(const char *" name ); .BI "DIR *fdopendir(int " fd ); .fi .P .RS -4 Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see .BR feature_test_macros (7)): .RE .P .BR fdopendir (): .nf Since glibc 2.10: _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L Before glibc 2.10: _GNU_SOURCE .fi .SH DESCRIPTION The .BR opendir () function opens a directory stream corresponding to the directory \fIname\fP, and returns a pointer to the directory stream. The stream is positioned at the first entry in the directory. .P The .BR fdopendir () function is like .BR opendir (), but returns a directory stream for the directory referred to by the open file descriptor .IR fd . After a successful call to .BR fdopendir (), .I fd is used internally by the implementation, and should not otherwise be used by the application. .SH RETURN VALUE The .BR opendir () and .BR fdopendir () functions return a pointer to the directory stream. On error, NULL is returned, and .I errno is set to indicate the error. .SH ERRORS .TP .B EACCES Permission denied. .TP .B EBADF .I fd is not a valid file descriptor opened for reading. .TP .B EMFILE The per-process limit on the number of open file descriptors has been reached. .TP .B ENFILE The system-wide limit on the total number of open files has been reached. .TP .B ENOENT Directory does not exist, or \fIname\fP is an empty string. .TP .B ENOMEM Insufficient memory to complete the operation. .TP .B ENOTDIR \fIname\fP is not a directory. .SH ATTRIBUTES For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see .BR attributes (7). .TS allbox; lbx lb lb l l l. Interface Attribute Value T{ .na .nh .BR opendir (), .BR fdopendir () T} Thread safety MT-Safe .TE .SH STANDARDS POSIX.1-2008. .SH STANDARDS .TP .BR opendir () SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001. .TP .BR fdopendir () POSIX.1-2008. glibc 2.4. .SH NOTES Filename entries can be read from a directory stream using .BR readdir (3). .P The underlying file descriptor of the directory stream can be obtained using .BR dirfd (3). .P The .BR opendir () function sets the close-on-exec flag for the file descriptor underlying the .IR "DIR *" . The .BR fdopendir () function leaves the setting of the close-on-exec flag unchanged for the file descriptor, .IR fd . POSIX.1-200x leaves it unspecified whether a successful call to .BR fdopendir () will set the close-on-exec flag for the file descriptor, .IR fd . .SH SEE ALSO .BR open (2), .BR closedir (3), .BR dirfd (3), .BR readdir (3), .BR rewinddir (3), .BR scandir (3), .BR seekdir (3), .BR telldir (3)