telldir - return current location in directory stream
#include <dirent.h>
long telldir(DIR *dirp);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
telldir():
_XOPEN_SOURCE
|| /* Glibc since 2.19: */ _DEFAULT_SOURCE
|| /* Glibc versions <= 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE
The telldir() function returns the current location associated with the directory stream dirp.
On success, the telldir() function returns the current location in the directory stream. On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropriately.
EBADF Invalid directory stream descriptor dirp.
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7). Interface Attribute Value telldir() Thread safety MT-Safe
POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, 4.3BSD.
In glibc up to version 2.1.1, the return type of telldir() was off_t. POSIX.1-2001 specifies long, and this is the type used since glibc 2.1.2. In early filesystems, the value returned by telldir() was a simple file offset within a directory. Modern filesystems use tree or hash structures, rather than flat tables, to represent directories. On such filesystems, the value returned by telldir() (and used internally by readdir(3)) is a "cookie" that is used by the implementation to derive a position within a directory. Application programs should treat this strictly as an opaque value, making no assumptions about its contents.
closedir(3), opendir(3), readdir(3), rewinddir(3), scandir(3), seekdir(3)
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2016-03-15 TELLDIR(3)