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1 | .\" Copyright (c) 1983, 1991, 1993 |
2 | .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. | |
3 | .\" | |
4 | .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without | |
5 | .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions | |
6 | .\" are met: | |
7 | .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright | |
8 | .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. | |
9 | .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright | |
10 | .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the | |
11 | .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. | |
dc71b7ab | 12 | .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors |
984263bc MD |
13 | .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software |
14 | .\" without specific prior written permission. | |
15 | .\" | |
16 | .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND | |
17 | .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE | |
18 | .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE | |
19 | .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE | |
20 | .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL | |
21 | .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS | |
22 | .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) | |
23 | .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT | |
24 | .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY | |
25 | .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF | |
26 | .\" SUCH DAMAGE. | |
27 | .\" | |
28 | .\" @(#)dir.5 8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94 | |
29 | .\" $FreeBSD: src/share/man/man5/dir.5,v 1.12.2.5 2001/12/17 11:30:13 ru Exp $ | |
44cb301e | 30 | .\" $DragonFly: src/share/man/man5/dir.5,v 1.7 2006/05/26 19:39:40 swildner Exp $ |
984263bc | 31 | .\" |
d4e8e477 | 32 | .Dd March 5, 2005 |
984263bc MD |
33 | .Dt DIR 5 |
34 | .Os | |
35 | .Sh NAME | |
36 | .Nm dir , | |
37 | .Nm dirent | |
38 | .Nd directory file format | |
39 | .Sh SYNOPSIS | |
40 | .In dirent.h | |
41 | .Sh DESCRIPTION | |
42 | Directories provide a convenient hierarchical method of grouping | |
43 | files while obscuring the underlying details of the storage medium. | |
44 | A directory file is differentiated from a plain file | |
45 | by a flag in its | |
46 | .Xr inode 5 | |
47 | entry. | |
48 | It consists of records (directory entries) each of which contains | |
49 | information about a file and a pointer to the file itself. | |
50 | Directory entries may contain other directories | |
51 | as well as plain files; such nested directories are referred to as | |
52 | subdirectories. | |
53 | A hierarchy of directories and files is formed in this manner | |
54 | and is called a file system (or referred to as a file system tree). | |
55 | .\" An entry in this tree, | |
56 | .\" nested or not nested, | |
57 | .\" is a pathname. | |
58 | .Pp | |
59 | Each directory file contains two special directory entries; one is a pointer | |
60 | to the directory itself | |
61 | called dot | |
62 | .Ql .\& | |
63 | and the other a pointer to its parent directory called dot-dot | |
64 | .Ql \&.. . | |
65 | Dot and dot-dot | |
66 | are valid pathnames, however, | |
67 | the system root directory | |
68 | .Ql / , | |
69 | has no parent and dot-dot points to itself like dot. | |
70 | .Pp | |
71 | File system nodes are ordinary directory files on which has | |
72 | been grafted a file system object, such as a physical disk or a | |
73 | partitioned area of such a disk. | |
74 | (See | |
75 | .Xr mount 2 | |
76 | and | |
77 | .Xr mount 8 . ) | |
78 | .Pp | |
d4e8e477 | 79 | The directory entry format is defined in |
44cb301e | 80 | .In sys/dirent.h . |
d4e8e477 | 81 | This file should not be included directly by applications. |
984263bc MD |
82 | .Sh SEE ALSO |
83 | .Xr fs 5 , | |
84 | .Xr inode 5 | |
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85 | .Sh HISTORY |
86 | A | |
87 | .Nm | |
88 | file format appeared in | |
89 | .At v7 . | |
ac561d34 SW |
90 | .Sh BUGS |
91 | The usage of the member d_type of struct dirent is unportable as it is | |
92 | .Dx Ns / Ns Fx Ns -specific . | |
93 | It also may fail on certain filesystems, for example the cd9660 filesystem. |