SEEKDIR(3POSIX)

👑 SEEKDIR(3POSIX) — POSIX Programmer's Manual 💅

okay bestie, welcome to the seekdir page from the POSIX Programmer's Manual ✨

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🌸 PROLOG 🌸

This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (so like, go check the corresponding Linux manual page for the deets on Linux behavior, fr), or honestly the interface might not even be implemented on Linux at all. 💀

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✨ NAME ✨

seekdir — set the position of a directory stream 🎀

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <dirent.h>

void seekdir(DIR *dirp, long loc);

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So the seekdir() function shall set the position of the next readdir() operation on the directory stream specified by dirp to the position specified by loc. 🌟

And here's the vibe: the value of loc should have been returned from an earlier call to telldir() using the same directory stream. The new position reverts to the one associated with the directory stream back when telldir() was performed. it's giving time travel but for directories, iykyk 🕰️

⚠️ okay real talk bestie — if the value of loc was not obtained from an earlier call to telldir(), or if a call to rewinddir() happened in between the call to telldir() and the call to seekdir(), then the results of subsequent calls to readdir() are unspecified. like, undefined. do not test it. 🙈

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🔥 RETURN VALUE 🔥

The seekdir() function shall not return a value. That's it. Nothing. Silence. No return. periodt. 💅

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💀 ERRORS 💀

No errors are defined.

The following sections are informative.

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🍓 EXAMPLES 🍓

None. (yeah. empty. it's giving minimal. 😭)

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🧚 APPLICATION USAGE 🧚

None. (also empty bestie, don't come for me, I'm just the messenger 🫶)

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🌈 RATIONALE 🌈

okay so the lore 📜: the original standard developers perceived that there were restrictions on the use of the seekdir() and telldir() functions related to implementation details, and for that reason these functions need not be supported on all POSIX-conforming systems. They are required on implementations supporting the XSI option.

One of the perceived problems of implementation is that returning to a given point in a directory is quite difficult to describe formally, in spite of its intuitive appeal, when systems that use B-trees, hashing functions, or other similar mechanisms to order their directories are considered. 👑 The definition of seekdir() and telldir() does not specify whether, when using these interfaces, a given directory entry will be seen at all, or more than once. (so it might show up zero times, it might show up twice, nobody knows. iconic chaotic behavior honestly.)

On systems not supporting these functions, their capability can sometimes be accomplished by saving a filename found by readdir() and later using rewinddir() and a loop on readdir() to relocate the position from which the filename was saved. 🎀

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⭐ FUTURE DIRECTIONS ⭐

None.

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💜 SEE ALSO 💜

• fdopendir()
• readdir()
• telldir()

The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, <dirent.h>, <sys_types.h>

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📜 COPYRIGHT 📜

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. 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.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

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and that's the whole page bestie!! 🫶 this lil slice of the manual is brought to you by IEEE/The Open Group, dated 2017, and yes the page is literally called SEEKDIR(3POSIX) 💖 mwah, go read telldir() next, they're a package deal ✨