NAME

dirread - read directory

SYNOPSIS

include "sys.m";
sys := load Sys Sys->PATH;

dirread:  fn(fd: ref FD): (int, array of Dir);

DESCRIPTION

Dirread reads the contents of the directory pointed to by the open file descriptor fd, returning a tuple containing an array with one Dir structure for each directory entry read. These Dir structures are equivalent to the result of a stat call on each file in the directory. See sys-stat(2) for a description of stat and Dir.

A successful dirread returns a tuple giving the number of entries read and the resulting array. A return of (0,nil) indicates the end of the directory. Directory entries are variable length in general; the file offset is advanced by the number of bytes actually read.

Seeks (see sys-seek(2)) are allowed on directories only to seek to the start.

In general, several calls to dirread will be needed to read the whole directory. Readdir (2) provides functions that return all the directory entries at once, optionally sorted.

SEE ALSO

readdir(2), sys-intro(2), sys-open(2), sys-read(2), sys-seek(2), sys-stat(2)

DIAGNOSTICS

The integer in dirread's return tuple has a value of -1 on error, and 0 on end of file. The array element of the tuple is nil in both cases.

SYS-DIRREAD(2 )

Rev:  Tue Mar 31 02:42:39 GMT 2015