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TELLDIR(3)                 Linux Programmer's Manual                TELLDIR(3)

NAME
       telldir - return current location in directory stream
SYNOPSIS
       #include <dirent.h>
       long telldir(DIR *dirp);
   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
       telldir(): _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE
DESCRIPTION
       The telldir() function returns the current location associated with the
       directory stream dirp.
RETURN VALUE
       On success, the telldir() function returns the current location in  the
       directory stream.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno is set appropri-
       ately.
ERRORS
       EBADF  Invalid directory stream descriptor dirp.
CONFORMING TO
       4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.
NOTES
       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 file systems, the value returned by  telldir()  was  a  simple
       file  offset  within a directory.  Modern file systems use tree or hash
       structures, rather than flat tables, to represent directories.  On such
       file  systems,  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.
SEE ALSO
       closedir(3),   opendir(3),   readdir(3),   rewinddir(3),    scandir(3),
       seekdir(3)
COLOPHON
       This  page  is  part of release 3.53 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting  bugs,  can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

                                  2013-03-24                        TELLDIR(3)