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Next: <a href="Random-Access-Directory.html#Random-Access-Directory" accesskey="n" rel="next">Random Access Directory</a>, Previous: <a href="Reading_002fClosing-Directory.html#Reading_002fClosing-Directory" accesskey="p" rel="prev">Reading/Closing Directory</a>, Up: <a href="Accessing-Directories.html#Accessing-Directories" accesskey="u" rel="up">Accessing Directories</a> &nbsp; [<a href="index.html#SEC_Contents" title="Table of contents" rel="contents">Contents</a>][<a href="Concept-Index.html#Concept-Index" title="Index" rel="index">Index</a>]</p>
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<a name="Simple-Program-to-List-a-Directory"></a>
<h4 class="subsection">14.2.4 Simple Program to List a Directory</h4>

<p>Here&rsquo;s a simple program that prints the names of the files in
the current working directory:
</p>
<div class="smallexample">
<pre class="smallexample">
</pre><pre class="smallexample">#include &lt;stdio.h&gt;
#include &lt;sys/types.h&gt;
#include &lt;dirent.h&gt;
</pre><pre class="smallexample">
int
main (void)
{
  DIR *dp;
  struct dirent *ep;

  dp = opendir (&quot;./&quot;);
  if (dp != NULL)
    {
      while (ep = readdir (dp))
        puts (ep-&gt;d_name);
      (void) closedir (dp);
    }
  else
    perror (&quot;Couldn't open the directory&quot;);

  return 0;
}
</pre></div>

<p>The order in which files appear in a directory tends to be fairly
random.  A more useful program would sort the entries (perhaps by
alphabetizing them) before printing them; see
<a href="Scanning-Directory-Content.html#Scanning-Directory-Content">Scanning Directory Content</a>, and <a href="Array-Sort-Function.html#Array-Sort-Function">Array Sort Function</a>.
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