pathfind.3g (2010 09)

pathﬁnd(3G) pathﬁnd(3G)

NAME

pathﬁnd() - search for named ﬁle in named directories

SYNOPSIS

#include <libgen.h>

char *pathfind (const char *path , const char *

name, const char *mode);

DESCRIPTION

pathfind searches the directories named in path for the ﬁle name. The directories named in path are

separated by colons. mode is a string of option letters chosen from the set

rwxfbcdpugks:

Letter Meaning

r readable

w writable

x executable

f normal ﬁle

b block special

c character special

d directory

p FIFO (pipe)

u set user ID bit

g set group ID bit

k sticky bit

s size nonzero

Options read, write, and execute are checked relative to the real (not the effective) user ID and group ID

of the current process.

If the ﬁle name , with all the characteristics speciﬁed by mode, is found in any of the directories speciﬁed

by path , then

pathfind returns a pointer to a string containing the member of path , followed by a slash

character (

/), followed by name.

If name begins with a slash, it is treated as an absolute path name, and path is ignored.

An empty path member is treated as the current directory.

. is not prepended at the occurrence of the

ﬁrst match; rather, the unadorned name is returned.

To use this interface, link in the libgen library by specifying

-lgen. For example:

cc foo.c -lgen

RETURN VALUE

If no match is found, pathname returns a null pointer, ((char *) 0).

EXAMPLES

To ﬁnd the

ls command using the PATH environment variable:

pathfind (getenv ("PATH"), "ls", "rx")

WARNINGS

The string pointed to by the returned pointer is stored in a static area that is reused on subsequent calls

to pathfind.