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

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 within my program.

From stackoverflow

• Try boost for x-platform method

  http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_38_0/libs/filesystem/doc/index.htm

  or just use your OS specific file stuff.

  samoz : That link crashes my Firefox window. *doh*

  Tim : ok, i took out the other one and left the boost link

• 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.

• In small and simple tasks I do not use boost, I use dirent.h which is also available for windows:

  DIR *dir;
  struct dirent *ent;
   dir = opendir ("c:\\src\\");
  if (dir != NULL) {
  
    /* print all the files and directories within directory */
    while ((ent = readdir (dir)) != NULL) {
      printf ("%s\n", ent->d_name);
    }
    closedir (dir);
  } else {
    /* could not open directory */
    perror ("");
    return EXIT_FAILURE;
  }
  

  It is just a small header file and does most of the simple stuff you need without using a big template-based approach like boost(no offence, I like boost!). I googled and found some links here The author of the windows compatibility layer is Toni Ronkko. In unix it is a standard-header

  Subtwo : +1: I like the lightweight solution. However, it requires an extra third party addition... But I guess you can't have it both ways. Anyway, good suggestion.

• This is a duplicate of 609236