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Name

pathfind - search for named file in named directories

Synopsis

cc [ flag ... ] file ... -lgen [ library ... ]

#include <libgen.h>

char *pathfind(const char *path, const char *name, const char *mode);

MT-Level

MT-Safe

Description

pathfind() searches the directories named in path for the file name. The directories named in path are separated by semicolons. 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.

Examples

To find the ls command using the PATH environment variable:

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

Return Values

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

See Also

sh(1) , test(1) , access(2) , mknod(2) , stat(2) , getenv(3C)

Notes

The string pointed to by the returned pointer is stored in an area that is reused on subsequent calls to pathfind(). The string should not be deallocated by the caller.

When compiling multi-thread applications, the _REENTRANT flag must be defined on the compile line. This flag should only be used in multi-thread applications.

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