Directory listings
Author
Hi guys and gals,
Ok, here is a little teaser. How does one find the contents of a directory in C/C++ without using any windows specific functions? Ie: If I now the directory that I want to search, I want to get the first file in it and then step through each file getting each filename.
--== Rapier ==--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Save the whales, feed the hungry, free the mallocs!
You can use findfirst, findnext and findclose to get the files in a directory.
Problem is, though, that not all compilers use the same names and/or same include files for those functions. VC++ 6, for example, puts these functions in io.h and prepends an underscore. BCC 5.5 places them in dir.h and doesn''t use an underscore. On other platforms, it''s still different...
Erik
Problem is, though, that not all compilers use the same names and/or same include files for those functions. VC++ 6, for example, puts these functions in io.h and prepends an underscore. BCC 5.5 places them in dir.h and doesn''t use an underscore. On other platforms, it''s still different...
Erik
Er, it says in the Visual C++ docs that _findfirst, _findlast, etc etc are Windows specific functions. Which was not what was asked for 
Now, I''m no C++ standard expert, but it''s possible there are no standardised directory-level functions, since they would be platform-dependent. I get a feeling that the closest you will get is the POSIX stuff (opendir, readdir, closedir and rewinddir) except that MSVC doesn''t seem to support them...
Now, I''m no C++ standard expert, but it''s possible there are no standardised directory-level functions, since they would be platform-dependent. I get a feeling that the closest you will get is the POSIX stuff (opendir, readdir, closedir and rewinddir) except that MSVC doesn''t seem to support them...
Author
*Nods to Kylotan* Yeah, thats what I thought about findfirst etc.
The thing is, I need to write a this thing to run on what is -probably- going to be a unix server, and I need to parse a directory for n amount of files, the names of which I wont know.
Anybody got any ideas?
--== Rapier ==--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Save the whales, feed the hungry, free the mallocs!
The thing is, I need to write a this thing to run on what is -probably- going to be a unix server, and I need to parse a directory for n amount of files, the names of which I wont know.
Anybody got any ideas?
--== Rapier ==--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Save the whales, feed the hungry, free the mallocs!
You may have to just do this:
If you put it into a wrapper like this, the rest of your code never needs to care whether it is running on Unix or Win32.
Edited by - Kylotan on 5/5/00 2:59:07 PM
FilenameList StoreDirectoryInList(String theDirectory){ FilenameList theList;#ifdef WIN32 // Do it the Win32 way here#else // Do it the Unix way here#endif // WIN32 return theList;} If you put it into a wrapper like this, the rest of your code never needs to care whether it is running on Unix or Win32.
Edited by - Kylotan on 5/5/00 2:59:07 PM
I believe POSIX specifies opendir(), readdir(), closedir(), etc. for scanning directory entries in the file system.
quote:Original post by SiCrane
I believe POSIX specifies opendir(), readdir(), closedir(), etc. for scanning directory entries in the file system.
Yep. You''re right. Those functions are part of POSIX.1, XPG4, XPG4-UNIX standards. They are supported by BSD 4.3, too. Using those functions you''ll get quite portable program.
BTW, referring to the original posting, there''s a nice and useful function that you could use to fetch the content of a specific directory (eventually applying a filter to it): scandir(). In fact, it''s a "macro-function" that uses the primitives you mentioned. It''s prototype follows:
int scandir(const char *dir, struct dirent ***namelist, int (*select)(const struct dirent *), int (*compar)(const struct dirent **, const struct dirent **));
More details if needed...
Bye,
Karmalaa /
Author
Thats exactly what I am looking for. Thanks a lot. You have all been, as always, a great help.
Thanks.
--== Rapier ==--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Save the whales, feed the hungry, free the mallocs!
Thanks.
--== Rapier ==--
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Save the whales, feed the hungry, free the mallocs!
This topic is closed to new replies.
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