How to list files in a directory in a C program?

Question

I'm trying to write an ftp server on Linux. In this matter how can I list files in the directory on terminal by a C program? Maybe I can use exec function to run find command but I want file name as a string to send client program. How can I do this?

Thanks for answers.

Answer 1

Below code will only print files within directory and exclude directories within given directory while traversing.

#include <dirent.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include<string.h>
int main(void)
{
    DIR *d;
    struct dirent *dir;
    char path[1000]="/home/joy/Downloads";
    d = opendir(path);
    char full_path[1000];
    if (d)
    {
        while ((dir = readdir(d)) != NULL)
        {
            //Condition to check regular file.
            if(dir->d_type==DT_REG){
                full_path[0]='\0';
                strcat(full_path,path);
                strcat(full_path,"/");
                strcat(full_path,dir->d_name);
                printf("%s\n",full_path);
            }
        }
        closedir(d);
    }
    return(0);     
}

Answer 2

One tiny addition to JB Jansen's answer - in the main readdir() loop I'd add this:

  if (dir->d_type == DT_REG)
  {
     printf("%s\n", dir->d_name);
  }

Just checking if it's really file, not (sym)link, directory, or whatever.

NOTE: more about struct dirent in libc documentation.

Answer 3

An example, available for POSIX compliant systems :

/*
 * This program displays the names of all files in the current directory.
 */

#include <dirent.h> 
#include <stdio.h> 

int main(void) {
  DIR *d;
  struct dirent *dir;
  d = opendir(".");
  if (d) {
    while ((dir = readdir(d)) != NULL) {
      printf("%s\n", dir->d_name);
    }
    closedir(d);
  }
  return(0);
}

Beware that such an operation is platform dependant in C.

Source : http://faq.cprogramming.com/cgi-bin/smartfaq.cgi?answer=1046380353&id=1044780608

Answer 4

Here is a complete program how to recursively list folder's contents:

#include <dirent.h> 
#include <stdio.h> 
#include <string.h>

#define NORMAL_COLOR  "\x1B[0m"
#define GREEN  "\x1B[32m"
#define BLUE  "\x1B[34m"



/* let us make a recursive function to print the content of a given folder */

void show_dir_content(char * path)
{
  DIR * d = opendir(path); // open the path
  if(d==NULL) return; // if was not able return
  struct dirent * dir; // for the directory entries
  while ((dir = readdir(d)) != NULL) // if we were able to read somehting from the directory
    {
      if(dir-> d_type != DT_DIR) // if the type is not directory just print it with blue
        printf("%s%s\n",BLUE, dir->d_name);
      else
      if(dir -> d_type == DT_DIR && strcmp(dir->d_name,".")!=0 && strcmp(dir->d_name,"..")!=0 ) // if it is a directory
      {
        printf("%s%s\n",GREEN, dir->d_name); // print its name in green
        char d_path[255]; // here I am using sprintf which is safer than strcat
        sprintf(d_path, "%s/%s", path, dir->d_name);
        show_dir_content(d_path); // recall with the new path
      }
    }
    closedir(d); // finally close the directory
}

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{

  printf("%s\n", NORMAL_COLOR);

    show_dir_content(argv[1]);

  printf("%s\n", NORMAL_COLOR);
  return(0);
}