Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Reading directories (was: Re: directory copying with cp; broken?)
Message-ID: <14@auspex.UUCP>
Date: 17 Oct 88 22:48:11 GMT
References: <30506@bbn.COM> <884@yabbie.rmit.oz> <1988Oct14.164807.1320@utzoo.uucp>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 9

> (Actually, the long-term answer is that directory reading really ought to
> go via the kernel so that a standard interface to different kinds of file
> systems can be provided,

In SunOS since SunOS release 2.0 (as well as, I suspect, many UNIX
systems that have picked up NFS), and in System V Release 3 and later
versions, it does precisely that, using "getdirentries" in SunOS prior
to 4.0 and "getdents" in S5R3 and SunOS 4.0.  Programs shouldn't use
those calls directly, of course; they should use "readdir".