PROLOG | NAME | SYNOPSIS | DESCRIPTION | RETURN VALUE | ERRORS | EXAMPLES | APPLICATION USAGE | RATIONALE | FUTURE DIRECTIONS | SEE ALSO | COPYRIGHT

NFTW(3P)                  POSIX Programmer's Manual                 NFTW(3P)

PROLOG         top

       This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux
       implementation of this interface may differ (consult the
       corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or
       the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

NAME         top

       nftw — walk a file tree

SYNOPSIS         top

       #include <ftw.h>
       int nftw(const char *path, int (*fn)(const char *,
           const struct stat *, int, struct FTW *), int fd_limit, int flags);

DESCRIPTION         top

       The nftw() function shall recursively descend the directory hierarchy
       rooted in path.  The nftw() function has a similar effect to ftw()
       except that it takes an additional argument flags, which is a
       bitwise-inclusive OR of zero or more of the following flags:
       FTW_CHDIR   If set, nftw() shall change the current working directory
                   to each directory as it reports files in that directory.
                   If clear, nftw() shall not change the current working
                   directory.
       FTW_DEPTH   If set, nftw() shall report all files in a directory
                   before reporting the directory itself. If clear, nftw()
                   shall report any directory before reporting the files in
                   that directory.
       FTW_MOUNT   If set, nftw() shall only report files in the same file
                   system as path.  If clear, nftw() shall report all files
                   encountered during the walk.
       FTW_PHYS    If set, nftw() shall perform a physical walk and shall
                   not follow symbolic links.
       If FTW_PHYS is clear and FTW_DEPTH is set, nftw() shall follow links
       instead of reporting them, but shall not report any directory that
       would be a descendant of itself. If FTW_PHYS is clear and FTW_DEPTH
       is clear, nftw() shall follow links instead of reporting them, but
       shall not report the contents of any directory that would be a
       descendant of itself.
       At each file it encounters, nftw() shall call the user-supplied
       function fn with four arguments:
        *  The first argument is the pathname of the object.
        *  The second argument is a pointer to the stat buffer containing
           information on the object, filled in as if fstatat(), stat(), or
           lstat() had been called to retrieve the information.
        *  The third argument is an integer giving additional information.
           Its value is one of the following:
           FTW_D     The object is a directory.
           FTW_DNR   The object is a directory that cannot be read. The fn
                     function shall not be called for any of its
                     descendants.
           FTW_DP    The object is a directory and subdirectories have been
                     visited. (This condition shall only occur if the
                     FTW_DEPTH flag is included in flags.)
           FTW_F     The object is a non-directory file.
           FTW_NS    The stat() function failed on the object because of
                     lack of appropriate permission. The stat buffer passed
                     to fn is undefined. Failure of stat() for any other
                     reason is considered an error and nftw() shall return
                     −1.
           FTW_SL    The object is a symbolic link. (This condition shall
                     only occur if the FTW_PHYS flag is included in flags.)
           FTW_SLN   The object is a symbolic link that does not name an
                     existing file.  (This condition shall only occur if the
                     FTW_PHYS flag is not included in flags.)
        *  The fourth argument is a pointer to an FTW structure.  The value
           of base is the offset of the object's filename in the pathname
           passed as the first argument to fn.  The value of level indicates
           depth relative to the root of the walk, where the root level is
           0.
       The results are unspecified if the application-supplied fn function
       does not preserve the current working directory.
       The argument fd_limit sets the maximum number of file descriptors
       that shall be used by nftw() while traversing the file tree. At most
       one file descriptor shall be used for each directory level.
       The nftw() function need not be thread-safe.

RETURN VALUE         top

       The nftw() function shall continue until the first of the following
       conditions occurs:
        *  An invocation of fn shall return a non-zero value, in which case
           nftw() shall return that value.
        *  The nftw() function detects an error other than [EACCES] (see
           FTW_DNR and FTW_NS above), in which case nftw() shall return −1
           and set errno to indicate the error.
        *  The tree is exhausted, in which case nftw() shall return 0.

ERRORS         top

       The nftw() function shall fail if:
       EACCES Search permission is denied for any component of path or read
              permission is denied for path, or fn returns −1 and does not
              reset errno.
       ELOOP  A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution
              of the path argument.
       ENAMETOOLONG
              The length of a component of a pathname is longer than
              {NAME_MAX}.
       ENOENT A component of path does not name an existing file or path is
              an empty string.
       ENOTDIR
              A component of path names an existing file that is neither a
              directory nor a symbolic link to a directory.
       EOVERFLOW
              A field in the stat structure cannot be represented correctly
              in the current programming environment for one or more files
              found in the file hierarchy.
       The nftw() function may fail if:
       ELOOP  More than {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic links were encountered during
              resolution of the path argument.
       EMFILE All file descriptors available to the process are currently
              open.
       ENAMETOOLONG
              The length of a pathname exceeds {PATH_MAX}, or pathname
              resolution of a symbolic link produced an intermediate result
              with a length that exceeds {PATH_MAX}.
       ENFILE Too many files are currently open in the system.
       In addition, errno may be set if the function pointed to by fn causes
       errno to be set.
       The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES         top

       The following program traverses the directory tree under the path
       named in its first command-line argument, or under the current
       directory if no argument is supplied. It displays various information
       about each file. The second command-line argument can be used to
       specify characters that control the value assigned to the flags
       argument when calling nftw().
           #include <ftw.h>
           #include <stdio.h>
           #include <stdlib.h>
           #include <string.h>
           #include <stdint.h>
           static int
           display_info(const char *fpath, const struct stat *sb,
               int tflag, struct FTW *ftwbuf)
           {
               printf("%-3s %2d %7jd   %-40s %d %s\n",
                   (tflag == FTW_D) ?   "d"   : (tflag == FTW_DNR) ? "dnr" :
                   (tflag == FTW_DP) ?  "dp"  : (tflag == FTW_F) ?
                       (S_ISBLK(sb->st_mode) ? "f b" :
                        S_ISCHR(sb->st_mode) ? "f c" :
                        S_ISFIFO(sb->st_mode) ? "f p" :
                        S_ISREG(sb->st_mode) ? "f r" :
                        S_ISSOCK(sb->st_mode) ? "f s" : "f ?") :
                   (tflag == FTW_NS) ?  "ns"  : (tflag == FTW_SL) ?  "sl" :
                   (tflag == FTW_SLN) ? "sln" : "?",
                   ftwbuf->level, (intmax_t) sb->st_size,
                   fpath, ftwbuf->base, fpath + ftwbuf->base);
               return 0;           /* To tell nftw() to continue */
           }
           int
           main(int argc, char *argv[])
           {
               int flags = 0;
               if (argc > 2 && strchr(argv[2], 'd') != NULL)
                   flags |= FTW_DEPTH;
               if (argc > 2 && strchr(argv[2], 'p') != NULL)
                   flags |= FTW_PHYS;
               if (nftw((argc < 2) ? "." : argv[1], display_info, 20, flags) == -1)
               {
                   perror("nftw");
                   exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
               }
               exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
           }

APPLICATION USAGE         top

       The nftw() function may allocate dynamic storage during its
       operation. If nftw() is forcibly terminated, such as by longjmp() or
       siglongjmp() being executed by the function pointed to by fn or an
       interrupt routine, nftw() does not have a chance to free that
       storage, so it remains permanently allocated. A safe way to handle
       interrupts is to store the fact that an interrupt has occurred, and
       arrange to have the function pointed to by fn return a non-zero value
       at its next invocation.

RATIONALE         top

       None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS         top

       None.

SEE ALSO         top

       fdopendir(3p), fstatat(3p), readdir(3p)
       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, ftw.h(0p)

COPYRIGHT         top

       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information
       Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open
       Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the
       Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open
       Group.  (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1
       applied.) In the event of any discrepancy between this version and
       the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and
       The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original
       Standard can be obtained online at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
       Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
       most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the
       source files to man page format. To report such errors, see
       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group                 2013                            NFTW(3P)

Pages that refer to this page: ftw.h(0p)ftw(3p)