dir(FP)                        6 January 1993                        dir(FP)


 Name

    dir - format of a directory

 Syntax


    #include <sys/dir.h>


 Description

    A directory behaves like an ordinary file, except that no user may write
    into a directory.  The fact that a file is a directory is indicated by a
    bit in the flag word of its inode entry (see filesystem(FP)).  The struc-
    ture of a directory is given in the include file /usr/include/sys/dir.h.

    By convention, the first two entries in each directory are``dot'' (.) and
    ``dotdot'' (..). The first is an entry for the directory itself. The
    second is for the parent directory.  The meaning of dotdot is modified
    for the root directory of the master file system; there is no parent, so
    dotdot has the same meaning as dot.

 See also

    filesystem(FP)