Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!uunet!mcsun!ukc!vision!chris
From: chris@visionware.co.uk (Chris Davies)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: finding out if a directory is empty in C program
Message-ID: <1991May3.155817.1807@visionware.co.uk>
Date: 3 May 91 15:58:17 GMT
References: <900@homer.UUCP> <1991Apr15.180550.14750@beaver.cs.washington.edu> <1991Apr18.054735.6733@metapro.DIALix.oz.au> <1991Apr25.022029.5476@csc.canberra.edu.au> <1991Apr25.223540.19303@athena.mit.edu>
Reply-To: chris@visionware.co.uk (Chris Davies)
Organization: VisionWare Ltd., Leeds, UK
Lines: 18

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

In article <1991Apr25.223540.19303@athena.mit.edu> jik@athena.mit.edu (Jonathan I. Kamens) writes:
>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()).

Why couldn't you use stat() and check whether the number of links == 2 ?
Most of the time it's not possible (well, not recommended) for _users_ to
hard-link to a directory, so the link-count wouldn't be wrong.

Chris
-- 
         VISIONWARE LTD, 57 Cardigan Lane, LEEDS LS4 2LE, England
    Tel +44 532 788858.  Fax +44 532 304676.  Email chris@visionware.co.uk
-------------- "VisionWare:   The home of DOS/UNIX/X integration" -------------