what is d_type in struct dirent ?

fssengg · 03-16-2005, 12:19 AM

hai

i am pasting here the struct dirent structure .can any one tell what are the d_reclen and d_type fielde means?how can i check(access) them?

struct dirent
{
#ifndef __USE_FILE_OFFSET64
__ino_t d_ino;
__off_t d_off;
#else
__ino64_t d_ino;
__off64_t d_off;
#endif
unsigned short int d_reclen; -------------????
unsigned char d_type;---------------------????????
char d_name[256];
};

zeropash · 03-16-2005, 02:39 AM

d_reclen is the length of the d_name excluding the null terminator.
d_type is the type of the file - as in regularfile/dir/link etc. however using these two fields is not such a great news for portability.
The posix standard says that programs should use only the d_name.
you dont need d_reclen (The d_name is always terminated by a null charecter and is a maximum of NAME_MAX charecters. if you want to know the file type use lstat.)