finding out if a directory is empty in C program (was Re: How do I tell when a directory is empty in a script?)

[Jonathan I. Kamens]

In article <1991Apr25.022029.5476 at csc.canberra.edu.au>, rvp at softserver.canberra.edu.au (Rey Paulo) writes:
|> Is there any system call or library routine in UNIX which tests whether
|> a directory is empty?

No.  You open the directory with opendir() and read it, and if the only
entries in it are "." and "..", it's empty.  Just like in a shell script
(except the script uses ls, or shell wildcard expansion, instead of opendir()).

And if you have a system that doesn't have opendir() or something like it,
instead forcing you to open and read the directory file directly, then you
should find your vendor and shoot him.

-- 
Jonathan Kamens			              USnail:
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Disclaimer: If you do find your vendor and shoot him, I'm not responsible. :-)