linux readdir - Are the entries "." and ".." always read first?

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Does readdir() guarantee an order?

I'm guessing this isn't the case, and I'd need to manually check the name of each entry instead of just skipping the first couple. Is that correct?

Related: [Does readdir() guarantee an order?](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8977441/does-readdir-guarantee-an-order) — BoltClock, Mar 10 '12 at 06:23

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 10 '12 at 06:24

3

The POSIX standard does not guarantee anything about the order of directory entries whatsoever. As such, if you're interested in filtering out . and .., you do need to compare for them.

answered Mar 10 '12 at 06:24

bdonlan

224,562
31
268
324

score 2 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 10 '12 at 06:25

No, you should never rely on finding . and .. first (although it almost always happens). I remember one case when I had problems with such an assuption (on ReiserFS they were not found first, but it was an old version of ReiserFS, now it may be different).

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 10 '12 at 06:27

0

It is not in the standard, but I have never seen them in any other place, but the first two. But, just in case, if you don't realy mind the time that much, I would do the check.

answered Mar 10 '12 at 06:27

Almaron

4,127
6
26
48

linux readdir - Are the entries "." and ".." always read first?

3 Answers3