.\" Copyright (C) 1995 Andries Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl)
.\"
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.\" Written 11 June 1995 by Andries Brouwer <aeb@cwi.nl>
.\" Modified 22 July 1995 by Michael Chastain <mec@duracef.shout.net>:
.\"   Derived from 'readdir.2'.
.\" Modified Tue Oct 22 08:11:14 EDT 1996 by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>
.TH GETDENTS 2  1995-07-22 "Linux 1.3.6" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
getdents \- get directory entries
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include <unistd.h>
.B #include <linux/types.h>
.B #include <linux/dirent.h>
.B #include <linux/unistd.h>
.B #include <errno.h>
.sp
.B _syscall3(int, getdents, uint, fd, struct dirent *, dirp, uint, count)
        /* Using \fBsyscall\fP(2) may be preferable; see \fBintro\fP(2) */
.sp
.BI "int getdents(unsigned int " fd ", struct dirent *" dirp ", unsigned int " count );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
This is not the function you are interested in.
Look at
.BR readdir (3)
for the POSIX conforming C library interface.
This page documents the bare kernel system call interface.
.PP
The system call
.BR getdents ()
reads several
.I dirent
structures from the directory
pointed at by
.I fd
into the memory area pointed to by
.IR dirp .
The parameter
.I count
is the size of the memory area.
.PP
The
.I dirent
structure is declared as follows:
.PP
.RS
.nf
struct dirent
{
    long d_ino;                 /* inode number */
    off_t d_off;                /* offset to next \fIdirent\fP */
    unsigned short d_reclen;    /* length of this \fIdirent\fP */
    char d_name [NAME_MAX+1];   /* filename (null-terminated) */
}
.fi
.RE
.PP
.I d_ino
is an inode number.
.I d_off
is the distance from the start of the directory to the start of the next
.IR dirent .
.I d_reclen
is the size of this entire
.IR dirent .
.I d_name
is a null-terminated filename.
.PP
This call supersedes
.BR readdir (2).
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
On success, the number of bytes read is returned.
On end of directory, 0 is returned.
On error, \-1 is returned, and
.I errno
is set appropriately.
.SH ERRORS
.TP
.B EBADF
Invalid file descriptor
.IR fd .
.TP
.B EFAULT
Argument points outside the calling process's address space.
.TP
.B EINVAL
Result buffer is too small.
.TP
.B ENOENT
No such directory.
.TP
.B ENOTDIR
File descriptor does not refer to a directory.
.SH "CONFORMING TO"
SVr4.
.\" SVr4 documents additional ENOLINK, EIO error conditions.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.BR readdir (2),
.BR readdir (3)