DIRFD(3)                                            Linux Programmer's Manual                                           DIRFD(3)



NAME
       dirfd - get directory stream file descriptor

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <dirent.h>

       int dirfd(DIR *dirp);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       dirfd(): _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION
       The function dirfd() returns the file descriptor associated with the directory stream dirp.

       This  descriptor  is the one used internally by the directory stream.  As a result, it is only useful for functions which
       do not depend on or alter the file position, such as fstat(2) and  fchdir(2).   It  will  be  automatically  closed  when
       closedir(3) is called.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, a nonnegative file descriptor is returned.  On error, -1 is returned.

ERRORS
       POSIX.1-2008 specifies two errors, neither of which is returned by the current implementation.

       EINVAL dirp does not refer to a valid directory stream.

       ENOTSUP
              The implementation does not support the association of a file descriptor with a directory.

CONFORMING TO
       POSIX.1-2008.  This function was a BSD extension, present in 4.3BSD-Reno, not in 4.2BSD.

NOTES
       The prototype for dirfd() is only available if _BSD_SOURCE or _SVID_SOURCE is defined.

SEE ALSO
       open(2), closedir(3), opendir(3), readdir(3), rewinddir(3), scandir(3), seekdir(3), telldir(3)

COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.25 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project, and information about
       reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.



Linux                                                      2008-08-21                                                   DIRFD(3)