opendir() in C Programming

c directory opendir dirent.h
AmperSand picture AmperSand · Jan 1, 2015 · Viewed 7.2k times · Source

I'm a beginner and I am making a code about getting the directory of a file, but I have something that I don't understand.

What's the meaning of "./" in DS = opendir ("./");

I have searched a lot of sites about C programming, but nothing gave me a good explanation. I have to present my code soon, forcing me to explain every single line of my code. Please help me. Thanks!

Answer

D3Hunter picture D3Hunter · Jan 1, 2015

./ is a relative path which is relative to the current working directory of your process.

In computing, the working directory of a process is a directory of a hierarchical file system, if any, dynamically associated with each process. When the process refers to a file using a simple file name or relative path (as opposed to a file designated by a full path from a root directory), the reference is interpreted relative to the current working directory of the process.

So suppose the working directory of your process is /foo, when you open ./ with opendir, you are actually opening /foo/./ which is equal to /foo.

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