code: 9ferno

ref: e81c54ba2ecc673a4d5f8aed0e9b52841fe07b0d
dir: /man/2/sys-dirread/

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.TH SYS-DIRREAD 2
.SH NAME
dirread \- read directory
.SH SYNOPSIS
.EX
include "sys.m";
sys := load Sys Sys->PATH;

dirread:  fn(fd: ref FD): (int, array of Dir);
.EE
.SH DESCRIPTION
.B Dirread
reads the contents of the directory pointed to by the open file descriptor
.IR fd ,
returning a tuple containing an array
with one
.B Dir
structure for each directory entry read.
These
.B Dir
structures are equivalent to the result of a
.B stat
call on each file in the directory.
See
.IR sys-stat (2)
for a description of
.B stat
and
.BR Dir .
.PP
A successful
.B 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.
.PP
Seeks (see
.IR sys-seek (2))
are allowed on directories only to seek to the start.
.PP
In general, several calls to
.B dirread
will be needed to read the whole directory.
.IR Readdir (2)
provides functions that return all the directory entries at once,
optionally sorted.
.SH SEE ALSO
.IR readdir (2),
.IR sys-intro (2),
.IR sys-open (2),
.IR sys-read (2),
.IR sys-seek (2),
.IR sys-stat (2)
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
The integer in
.BR 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.