14 File System Interface

This chapter describes the GNU C library's functions for manipulating files. Unlike the input and output functions (see I/O on Streams; see Low-Level I/O), these functions are concerned with operating on the files themselves rather than on their contents.

Among the facilities described in this chapter are functions for examining or modifying directories, functions for renaming and deleting files, and functions for examining and setting file attributes such as access permissions and modification times.

• Working Directory: This is used to resolve relative file names.
• Accessing Directories: Finding out what files a directory contains.
• Working with Directory Trees: Apply actions to all files or a selectable subset of a directory hierarchy.
• Hard Links: Adding alternate names to a file.
• Symbolic Links: A file that ``points to'' a file name.
• Deleting Files: How to delete a file, and what that means.
• Renaming Files: Changing a file's name.
• Creating Directories: A system call just for creating a directory.
• File Attributes: Attributes of individual files.
• Making Special Files: How to create special files.
• Temporary Files: Naming and creating temporary files.