Question

I want to scan a directory tree and list all files and folders inside each directory. I created a program that downloads images from a webcamera and saves them locally. This program creates a filetree based on the time the picture is downloaded. I now want to scan these folders and upload the images to a webserver but I´m not sure how I can scan the directories to find the images.
If anyone could post some sample code it would be very helpful.

edit: I´m running this on an embedded linux system and don´t want to use boost

Answer 1

See man ftw for a simple “file tree walk”. I also used fnmatch in this example.

#include <ftw.h>
#include <fnmatch.h>

static const char *filters[] = {
    "*.jpg", "*.jpeg", "*.gif", "*.png"
};

static int callback(const char *fpath, const struct stat *sb, int typeflag) {
    /* if it's a file */
    if (typeflag == FTW_F) {
        int i;
        /* for each filter, */
        for (i = 0; i < sizeof(filters) / sizeof(filters[0]); i++) {
            /* if the filename matches the filter, */
            if (fnmatch(filters[i], fpath, FNM_CASEFOLD) == 0) {
                /* do something */
                printf("found image: %s\n", fpath);
                break;
            }
        }
    }

    /* tell ftw to continue */
    return 0;
}

int main() {
    ftw(".", callback, 16);
}

(Not even compile-tested, but you get the idea.)

This is much simpler than dealing with DIRENTs and recursive traversal yourself.

---

For greater control over traversal, there’s also fts. In this example, dot-files (files and directories with names starting with “.”) are skipped, unless explicitly passed to the program as a starting point.

#include <fts.h>
#include <string.h>

int main(int argc, char **argv) {
    char *dot[] = {".", 0};
    char **paths = argc > 1 ? argv + 1 : dot;

    FTS *tree = fts_open(paths, FTS_NOCHDIR, 0);
    if (!tree) {
        perror("fts_open");
        return 1;
    }

    FTSENT *node;
    while ((node = fts_read(tree))) {
        if (node->fts_level > 0 && node->fts_name[0] == '.')
            fts_set(tree, node, FTS_SKIP);
        else if (node->fts_info & FTS_F) {
            printf("got file named %s at depth %d, "
                "accessible via %s from the current directory "
                "or via %s from the original starting directory\n",
                node->fts_name, node->fts_level,
                node->fts_accpath, node->fts_path);
            /* if fts_open is not given FTS_NOCHDIR,
             * fts may change the program's current working directory */
        }
    }
    if (errno) {
        perror("fts_read");
        return 1;
    }

    if (fts_close(tree)) {
        perror("fts_close");
        return 1;
    }

    return 0;
}

Again, it’s neither compile-tested nor run-tested, but I thought I’d mention it.