Checking if a file is a directory or just a file [duplicate]
I'm writing a program to check if something is a file or is a directory. Is there a better way to do it than this?
#include <stdio.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <dirent.h>
#include <errno.h>
int isFile(const char* name)
{
DIR* directory = opendir(name);
if(directory != NULL)
{
closedir(directory);
return 0;
}
if(errno == ENOTDIR)
{
return 1;
}
return -1;
}
int main(void)
{
const char* file = "./testFile";
const char* directory = "./";
printf("Is %s a file? %s.\n", file,
((isFile(file) == 1) ? "Yes" : "No"));
printf("Is %s a directory? %s.\n", directory,
((isFile(directory) == 0) ? "Yes" : "No"));
return 0;
}
Solution 1:
You can call the stat() function and use the S_ISREG()
macro on the st_mode
field of the stat structure in order to determine if your path points to a regular file:
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int is_regular_file(const char *path)
{
struct stat path_stat;
stat(path, &path_stat);
return S_ISREG(path_stat.st_mode);
}
Note that there are other file types besides regular and directory, like devices, pipes, symbolic links, sockets, etc. You might want to take those into account.
Solution 2:
Use the S_ISDIR
macro:
int isDirectory(const char *path) {
struct stat statbuf;
if (stat(path, &statbuf) != 0)
return 0;
return S_ISDIR(statbuf.st_mode);
}