Directory recursion

Question

If you need to recursively traverse a directory tree, there are two ways to do it:

1. Build up pathnames of increasing length as you go, .../.../... etc.

Answer 1

Erm... in fact a modern implementation will likely use the

• ftw
• nftw calls

ftw is short for file tree walk

See also a very useful resource: http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Walk_a_directory/Recursively#Library:_POSIX

Answer 2

The method 2 seemlessly handles situations where a component in the path is renamed.

It also denies anyone from unmounting the directory while it's being searched; the kernel will refuse to unmount the directory if it's in use, which includes being the cwd of some process.

Answer 3

I believe the find uses method 2 as you are able to execute commands as you go (with the exec option)