---
name: "dirent"
section: "5"
platform: "macos"
package: "xnu"
version: "12377.121.6"
release: "macOS 26.5"
platforms: ["freebsd", "macos"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/dir/5"
---

# dirent(5)

directory file format

Part of [dir(5)](/dir/5.md).

## NAME

**dir**, **dirent** – directory file format

## SYNOPSIS

**#include \<sys/types.h\>**

**#include \<sys/dir.h\>**

## DESCRIPTION

Directories provide a convenient hierarchical method of grouping files while obscuring the underlying details of the storage medium. A directory file is differentiated from a plain file by a flag in its [inode(5)](/inode/5.md) entry. It consists of records (directory entries) each of which contains information about a file and a pointer to the file itself. Directory entries may contain other directories as well as plain files; such nested directories are refered to as subdirectories.  A hierarchy of directories and files is formed in this manner and is called a file system (or referred to as a file system tree).

Each directory file contains two special directory entries; one is a pointer to the directory itself called dot ‘.’ and the other a pointer to its parent directory called dot-dot ‘..’. Dot and dot-dot are valid pathnames, however, the system root directory ‘/’, has no parent and dot-dot points to itself like dot.

File system nodes are ordinary directory files on which has been grafted a file system object, such as a physical disk or a partitioned area of such a disk. (See mount(1) and [mount(8)](/mount/8.md).)

The directory entry format is defined in the file ⟨sys/dirent.h⟩ and further in the file ⟨dirent.h⟩. When the macro \_DARWIN\_FEATURE\_64\_BIT\_INODE is not defined (see [stat(2)](/stat/2.md) for more information on this macro), the *dirent* structure is defined as:

```
/*** Excerpt from <sys/dirent.h> ***/
/*
 * The dirent structure defines the format of directory entries.
 *
 * A directory entry has a struct dirent at the front of it, containing its
 * inode number, the length of the entry, and the length of the name
 * contained in the entry.  These are followed by the name padded to a 4
 * byte boundary with null bytes.  All names are guaranteed null terminated.
 * The maximum length of a name in a directory is 255.
 */
struct dirent { /* when _DARWIN_FEATURE_64_BIT_INODE is NOT defined */
        ino_t      d_ino;                /* file number of entry */
        __uint16_t d_reclen;             /* length of this record */
        __uint8_t  d_type;               /* file type, see below */
        __uint8_t  d_namlen;             /* length of string in d_name */
        char    d_name[255 + 1];   /* name must be no longer than this */
};
```

However, when the macro \_DARWIN\_FEATURE\_64\_BIT\_INODE is defined, the *dirent* structure is defined as:

```
/*
 * The dirent structure defines the format of directory entries.
 *
 * A directory entry has a struct dirent at the front of it, containing its
 * inode number, the length of the entry, and the length of the name
 * contained in the entry.  These are followed by the name padded to a 4
 * byte boundary with null bytes.  All names are guaranteed null terminated.
 * The maximum length of a name in a directory is 1023.
 */
struct dirent { /* when _DARWIN_FEATURE_64_BIT_INODE is defined */
        ino_t      d_fileno;     /* file number of entry */
        __uint64_t d_seekoff;    /* seek offset (optional, used by servers) */
        __uint16_t d_reclen;     /* length of this record */
        __uint16_t d_namlen;     /* length of string in d_name */
        __uint8_t  d_type;       /* file type, see below */
        char    d_name[1024];    /* name must be no longer than this */
};
```

In addition:

```
/*
 * File types
 */
#define DT_UNKNOWN       0
#define DT_FIFO          1
#define DT_CHR           2
#define DT_DIR           4
#define DT_BLK           6
#define DT_REG           8
#define DT_LNK          10
#define DT_SOCK         12
#define DT_WHT          14
```

\-----------------------------------------

```
/*** Excerpt from <dirent.h> ***/
#define d_fileno        d_ino        /* backward compatibility */
/* definitions for library routines operating on directories. */
#define DIRBLKSIZ       1024
struct _telldir;                /* see telldir.h */
/* structure describing an open directory. */
typedef struct _dirdesc {
        int     __dd_fd;      /* file descriptor associated with directory */
        long    __dd_loc;     /* offset in current buffer */
        long    __dd_size;    /* amount of data returned by getdirentries */
        char    *__dd_buf;    /* data buffer */
        int     __dd_len;     /* size of data buffer */
        long    __dd_seek;    /* magic cookie returned by getdirentries */
        long    __dd_rewind;  /* magic cookie for rewinding */
        int     __dd_flags;   /* flags for readdir */
        pthread_mutex_t __dd_lock; /* for thread locking */
        struct _telldir *__dd_td; /* telldir position recording */
} DIR;
#define dirfd(dirp)     ((dirp)->dd_fd)
/* flags for opendir2 */
#define DTF_HIDEW       0x0001  /* hide whiteout entries */
#define DTF_NODUP       0x0002  /* don't return duplicate names */
#define DTF_REWIND      0x0004  /* rewind after reading union stack */
#define __DTF_READALL   0x0008  /* everything has been read */
```

## SEE ALSO

[fs(5)](/fs/5.md), [inode(5)](/inode/5.md)

## HISTORY

A **dir** file format appeared in Version 7 AT&T UNIX.