How can I get the list of files in a directory using C or C++?

Question

How can I determine the list of files in a directory from inside my C or C++ code?

I\'m not allowed to execute the ls command and parse the results from

Answer 1

Try scandir() from dirent.h

man scandir()

Answer 2

This worked for me. It writes a file with just the names (no path) of all the files. Then it reads that txt file and prints it for you.

void DisplayFolderContent()
    {

        system("dir /n /b * > file_names.txt");
        char ch;
        std::fstream myStream("file_names.txt", std::fstream::in);
        while (myStream.get(ch))
        {
            std::cout << ch;
        }

    }

Answer 3

C++17 now has a std::filesystem::directory_iterator, which can be used as

#include <string>
#include <iostream>
#include <filesystem>
namespace fs = std::filesystem;

int main() {
    std::string path = "/path/to/directory";
    for (const auto & entry : fs::directory_iterator(path))
        std::cout << entry.path() << std::endl;
}

Also, std::filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator can iterate the subdirectories as well.

Answer 4

Unfortunately the C++ standard does not define a standard way of working with files and folders in this way.

Since there is no cross platform way, the best cross platform way is to use a library such as the boost filesystem module.

Cross platform boost method:

The following function, given a directory path and a file name, recursively searches the directory and its sub-directories for the file name, returning a bool, and if successful, the path to the file that was found.

bool find_file(const path & dir_path,         // in this directory,
               const std::string & file_name, // search for this name,
               path & path_found)             // placing path here if found
{
    if (!exists(dir_path)) 
        return false;

    directory_iterator end_itr; // default construction yields past-the-end

    for (directory_iterator itr(dir_path); itr != end_itr; ++itr)
    {
        if (is_directory(itr->status()))
        {
            if (find_file(itr->path(), file_name, path_found)) 
                return true;
        }
        else if (itr->leaf() == file_name) // see below
        {
            path_found = itr->path();
            return true;
        }
    }
    return false;
}

Source from the boost page mentioned above.

For Unix/Linux based systems:

You can use opendir / readdir / closedir.

Sample code which searches a directory for entry ``name'' is:

len = strlen(name);
dirp = opendir(".");
while ((dp = readdir(dirp)) != NULL)
        if (dp->d_namlen == len && !strcmp(dp->d_name, name)) {
                (void)closedir(dirp);
                return FOUND;
        }
(void)closedir(dirp);
return NOT_FOUND;

Source code from the above man pages.

For a windows based systems:

You can use the Win32 API FindFirstFile / FindNextFile / FindClose functions.

The following C++ example shows you a minimal use of FindFirstFile.

#include <windows.h>
#include <tchar.h>
#include <stdio.h>

void _tmain(int argc, TCHAR *argv[])
{
   WIN32_FIND_DATA FindFileData;
   HANDLE hFind;

   if( argc != 2 )
   {
      _tprintf(TEXT("Usage: %s [target_file]\n"), argv[0]);
      return;
   }

   _tprintf (TEXT("Target file is %s\n"), argv[1]);
   hFind = FindFirstFile(argv[1], &FindFileData);
   if (hFind == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE) 
   {
      printf ("FindFirstFile failed (%d)\n", GetLastError());
      return;
   } 
   else 
   {
      _tprintf (TEXT("The first file found is %s\n"), 
                FindFileData.cFileName);
      FindClose(hFind);
   }
}

Source code from the above msdn pages.

Answer 5

char **getKeys(char *data_dir, char* tablename, int *num_keys)
{
    char** arr = malloc(MAX_RECORDS_PER_TABLE*sizeof(char*));
int i = 0;
for (;i < MAX_RECORDS_PER_TABLE; i++)
    arr[i] = malloc( (MAX_KEY_LEN+1) * sizeof(char) );  


char *buf = (char *)malloc( (MAX_KEY_LEN+1)*sizeof(char) );
snprintf(buf, MAX_KEY_LEN+1, "%s/%s", data_dir, tablename);

DIR* tableDir = opendir(buf);
struct dirent* getInfo;

readdir(tableDir); // ignore '.'
readdir(tableDir); // ignore '..'

i = 0;
while(1)
{


    getInfo = readdir(tableDir);
    if (getInfo == 0)
        break;
    strcpy(arr[i++], getInfo->d_name);
}
*(num_keys) = i;
return arr;
}

Answer 6

This works for me. I'm sorry if I cannot remember the source. It is probably from a man page.

#include <ftw.h>

int AnalizeDirectoryElement (const char *fpath, 
                            const struct stat *sb,
                            int tflag, 
                            struct FTW *ftwbuf) {

  if (tflag == FTW_F) {
    std::string strFileName(fpath);

    DoSomethingWith(strFileName);
  }
  return 0; 
}

void WalkDirectoryTree (const char * pchFileName) {

  int nFlags = 0;

  if (nftw(pchFileName, AnalizeDirectoryElement, 20, nFlags) == -1) {
    perror("nftw");
  }
}

int main() {
  WalkDirectoryTree("some_dir/");
}