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.TH ALPHASORT "3P" 2013 "IEEE/The Open Group" "POSIX Programmer's Manual"
.SH PROLOG
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.

.SH NAME
alphasort, scandir
\(em scan a directory
.SH SYNOPSIS
.LP
.nf
#include <dirent.h>
.P
int alphasort(const struct dirent **\fId1\fP, const struct dirent **\fId2\fP);
int scandir(const char *\fIdir\fP, struct dirent ***\fInamelist\fP,
    int (*\fIsel\fP)(const struct dirent *),
    int (*\fIcompar\fP)(const struct dirent **, const struct dirent **));
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
\fIalphasort\fR()
function can be used as the comparison function for the
\fIscandir\fR()
function to sort the directory entries,
.IR d1
and
.IR d2 ,
into alphabetical order. Sorting happens as if by calling the
\fIstrcoll\fR()
function on the
.IR d_name
element of the
.BR dirent
structures passed as the two parameters. If the
\fIstrcoll\fR()
function fails, the return value of
\fIalphasort\fR()
is unspecified.
.P
The
\fIalphasort\fR()
function shall not change the setting of
.IR errno
if successful. Since no return value is reserved to indicate an error,
an application wishing to check for error situations should set
.IR errno
to 0, then call
\fIalphasort\fR(),
then check
.IR errno .
.P
The
\fIscandir\fR()
function shall scan the directory
.IR dir ,
calling the function referenced by
.IR sel
on each directory entry. Entries for which the function referenced by
.IR sel
returns non-zero shall be stored in strings allocated as if by
a call to
\fImalloc\fR(),
and sorted as if by a call to
\fIqsort\fR()
with the comparison function
.IR compar ,
except that
.IR compar
need not provide total ordering. The strings are collected in
array
.IR namelist
which shall be allocated as if by a call to
\fImalloc\fR().
If
.IR sel
is a null pointer, all entries shall be selected.
If the comparison function
.IR compar
does not provide total ordering, the order in which the directory
entries are stored is unspecified.
.SH "RETURN VALUE"
Upon successful completion, the
\fIalphasort\fR()
function shall return an integer greater than, equal to, or less than 0,
according to whether the name of the directory entry pointed to by
.IR d1
is lexically greater than, equal to, or less than the directory pointed
to by
.IR d2
when both are interpreted as appropriate to the current locale. There
is no return value reserved to indicate an error.
.P
Upon successful completion, the
\fIscandir\fR()
function shall return the number of entries in the array and a pointer
to the array through the parameter
.IR namelist .
Otherwise, the
\fIscandir\fR()
function shall return \(mi1.
.SH ERRORS
The
\fIscandir\fR()
function shall fail if:
.TP
.BR EACCES
Search permission is denied for the component of the path prefix of
.IR dir
or read permission is denied for
.IR dir .
.TP
.BR ELOOP
A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of the
.IR dir
argument.
.TP
.BR ENAMETOOLONG
.br
The length of a component of a pathname is longer than
{NAME_MAX}.
.TP
.BR ENOENT
A component of
.IR dir
does not name an existing directory or
.IR dir
is an empty string.
.TP
.BR ENOMEM
Insufficient storage space is available.
.TP
.BR ENOTDIR
A component of
.IR dir
names an existing file that is neither a directory nor a symbolic link
to a directory.
.TP
.BR EOVERFLOW
One of the values to be returned or passed to a callback function cannot
be represented correctly.
.P
The
\fIscandir\fR()
function may fail if:
.TP
.BR ELOOP
More than
{SYMLOOP_MAX}
symbolic links were encountered during resolution of the
.IR dir
argument.
.TP
.BR EMFILE
All file descriptors available to the process are currently open.
.TP
.BR ENAMETOOLONG
.br
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}.
.TP
.BR ENFILE
Too many files are currently open in the system.
.LP
.IR "The following sections are informative."
.SH EXAMPLES
An example to print the files in the current directory:
.sp
.RS 4
.nf
\fB
#include <dirent.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
\&...
struct dirent **namelist;
int i,n;
.P
    n = scandir(".", &namelist, 0, alphasort);
    if (n < 0)
        perror("scandir");
    else {
        for (i = 0; i < n; i++) {
            printf("%s\en", namelist[i]->d_name);
            free(namelist[i]);
            }
        }
    free(namelist);
\&...
.fi \fR
.P
.RE
.SH "APPLICATION USAGE"
If
.IR dir
contains filenames that do not form character strings, or which contain
characters outside the domain of the collating sequence of the current
locale, the
\fIalphasort\fR()
function need not provide a total ordering. This condition is not possible
if all filenames within the directory consist only of characters from
the portable filename character set.
.P
The
\fIscandir\fR()
function may allocate dynamic storage during its operation. If
\fIscandir\fR()
is forcibly terminated, such as by
\fIlongjmp\fR()
or
\fIsiglongjmp\fR()
being executed by the function pointed to by
.IR sel
or
.IR compar ,
or by an interrupt routine,
\fIscandir\fR()
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, then wait until
\fIscandir\fR()
returns to act on the interrupt.
.P
For functions that allocate memory as if by
\fImalloc\fR(),
the application should release such memory when it is no longer
required by a call to
\fIfree\fR().
For
\fIscandir\fR(),
this is
.IR namelist
(including all of the individual strings in
.IR namelist ).
.SH RATIONALE
None.
.SH "FUTURE DIRECTIONS"
None.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.IR "\fIqsort\fR\^(\|)",
.IR "\fIstrcoll\fR\^(\|)"
.P
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1\(hy2008,
.IR "\fB<dirent.h>\fP"
.SH COPYRIGHT
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 .

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