How to tell if a file or directory

Hello,

I need to determine if d_name in struct dirent is a file or directory. According to the Clibray I can use unsigned char d_type but it is not reliable for all posix systems. So, how would I determine if d_type is a file or directory without unsigned char d_type? Could I just check to see if it is a directory by opening a directory and if it opens, it is a directory and if it fails it is not a directory? Any ideas?

Swappo,

You can do a stat and then do an S_ISDIR on the st_mode

Code:

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bool isDir(const char* target)
{
  struct stat statbuf;
  stat(target, &statbuf);
  return S_ISDIR(statbuf.st_mode);
}

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Don't forget your error checking.

How many systems are you hoping to be portable with?

Using d_type (IIRC, there are some macros as well such as ISDIR()), would be preferable.
Edit: Zlatko beat me to the stat()

The ultimate backstop would be to try opendir() and check the errno for say ENOTDIR

In any event, creating your own wrapper function will isolate portability issues.

Thanks for the help. I found the page for struct stat. S_ISDIR and S_ISREG is what I am looking for.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Salem

The ultimate backstop would be to try opendir() and check the errno for say ENOTDIR

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I wouldn't call that a backstop, I'd call it the proper solution. It's portable and it works.