.\" Copyright (C) 2002 Andries Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl)
.\"
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.TH DIRFD 3 2016-03-15 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
dirfd \- get directory stream file descriptor
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B #include <sys/types.h>
.br
.B #include <dirent.h>
.sp
.BI "int dirfd(DIR *" dirp );
.sp
.in -4n
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see
.BR feature_test_macros (7)):
.in
.sp
.BR dirfd ():
.br
.RS 4
.PD 0
.ad l
/* Since glibc 2.10: */ _POSIX_C_SOURCE\ >=\ 200809L
    || /* Glibc versions <= 2.19: */ _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE
.PD
.RE
.ad
.SH DESCRIPTION
The function
.BR dirfd ()
returns the file descriptor associated with the directory stream
.IR dirp .
.LP
This file descriptor is the one used internally by the directory stream.
As a result, it is useful only for functions which do not depend on
or alter the file position, such as
.BR fstat (2)
and
.BR fchdir (2).
It will be automatically closed when
.BR closedir (3)
is called.
.SH RETURN VALUE
On success, a nonnegative file descriptor is returned.
On error, \-1 is returned, and
.I errno
is set to indicate the cause of the error.
.SH ERRORS
POSIX.1-2008 specifies two errors,
neither of which is returned by the current
.\" glibc 2.8
implementation.
.TP
.B EINVAL
.I dirp
does not refer to a valid directory stream.
.TP
.B ENOTSUP
The implementation does not support the association of a file
descriptor with a directory.
.SH ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
.BR attributes (7).
.TS
allbox;
lb lb lb
l l l.
Interface	Attribute	Value
T{
.BR dirfd ()
T}	Thread safety	MT-Safe
.TE
.SH CONFORMING TO
POSIX.1-2008.
This function was a BSD extension, present in 4.3BSD-Reno, not in 4.2BSD.
.\" It is present in libc5 (since 5.1.2) and in glibc2.
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR open (2),
.BR closedir (3),
.BR opendir (3),
.BR readdir (3),
.BR rewinddir (3),
.BR scandir (3),
.BR seekdir (3),
.BR telldir (3)
.SH COLOPHON
This page is part of release 4.10 of the Linux
.I man-pages
project.
A description of the project,
information about reporting bugs,
and the latest version of this page,
can be found at
\%https://www.kernel.org/doc/man\-pages/.