Directory listing using kernel calls

smoothny · 03-31-2006, 01:39 AM

I'm new to Linux programming. I wanted to design some kind of plugin loading stuff. What stops me is I do not know and can't figure out how to get the listing of the directory in my program. I look at system calls and I've already found out that I can read directories as if they were regular files. Maybe that's now the way. Modestly but impatiently

waiting for response.

Smoothny.

jlliagre · 03-31-2006, 02:04 AM

I guess you need to clarify what you want to achieve.

Please elaborate on "kind of plugin loading stuff" and "the listing of the directory".

smoothny · 03-31-2006, 02:25 AM

What I want is just get the array of filenames under certain directory in my C program. Eg I look in "/var/www/localhost/cgi-bin/plugin" and i get the array of filenames "unicode.so", "us-ascii.so" etc. I'm done with plugin loading support.

I dont know what kernel calls I should use to get contents of directory.

jlliagre · 03-31-2006, 03:37 AM

Do you really need low level programming to do that (i.e. kernel/system calls), or a library call is really what you are after ?

In the latter case, opendir/readdir can be used to build the array you want.

smoothny · 03-31-2006, 04:07 AM

I think I will use library functions you advised. I fall into common mistake trying to do lowlevel stuff losing portablility. Thanks for help.

primo · 03-31-2006, 03:18 PM

You may use scandir() for this. It's implemented over readdir(). For maximum robustness, and if you don't care about entries being sorted, use opendir()/readdir()/closedir() on each file in a serial way, as it doesn't allocate a large buffer to hold all filenames.