NAME¶

std::experimental::filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator - std::experimental::filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator

Synopsis¶

Defined in header <experimental/filesystem>
class recursive_directory_iterator; (filesystem TS)

recursive_directory_iterator is an LegacyInputIterator that iterates over the
directory_entry elements of a directory, and, recursively, over the entries of all
subdirectories. The iteration order is unspecified, except that each directory entry
is visited only once.

By default, symlinks are not followed, but this can be enabled by specifying the
directory option follow_directory_symlink at construction time.

The special pathnames dot and dot-dot are skipped.

If the recursive_directory_iterator is advanced past the last directory entry of the
top-level directory, it becomes equal to the default-constructed iterator, also
known as the end iterator. Two end iterators are always equal, dereferencing or
incrementing the end iterator is undefined behavior.

If a file or a directory is deleted or added to the directory tree after the
recursive directory iterator has been created, it is unspecified whether the change
would be observed through the iterator.

If the directory structure contains cycles, the end iterator may be unreachable.

Member types¶

Member type Definition
value_type filesystem::directory_entry
difference_type std::ptrdiff_t
pointer const filesystem::directory_entry*
reference const filesystem::directory_entry&
iterator_category std::input_iterator_tag

Member functions¶

constructor constructs a recursive directory iterator
(public member function)
destructor default destructor
(public member function)

Observers¶

operator* accesses the pointed-to entry
operator-> (public member function)
returns the currently active options that affect the
options iteration
(public member function)
depth returns the current recursion depth
(public member function)
checks whether the recursion is disabled for the current
recursion_pending directory
(public member function)

Modifiers¶

operator= assigns contents
(public member function)
increment advances to the next entry
operator++ (public member function)
pop moves the iterator one level up in the directory hierarchy
(public member function)
disable_recursion_pending disables recursion until the next increment
(public member function)

Non-member functions¶

filesystem::begin(filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator) range-based for loop
filesystem::end(filesystem::recursive_directory_iterator) support
(function)

Additionally, operator== and operator!= are provided, either as members or as
non-members, as required by LegacyInputIterator

Notes¶

A recursive_directory_iterator typically holds a reference-counted pointer (to
satisfy shallow-copy semantics of LegacyInputIterator) to an implementation object,
which holds:

* a container (such as std::vector) of non-recursive directory_iterators that
forms the recursion stack
* the recursion depth counter (accessible with depth())
* the directory options used at construction (accessible with options())
* the pending recursion flag (accessible with recursion_pending(), may be combined
with the directory options to save space)

Example¶

// Run this code

#include <fstream>
#include <iostream>
#include <experimental/filesystem>
namespace fs = std::experimental::filesystem;

int main()
{
fs::create_directories("sandbox/a/b");
std::ofstream("sandbox/file1.txt");
fs::create_symlink("a", "sandbox/syma");
for(const fs::directory_entry& entry: fs::recursive_directory_iterator("sandbox"))
std::cout << entry << '\n';
fs::remove_all("sandbox");
}

Possible output:¶

"sandbox/a"
"sandbox/a/b"
"sandbox/file1.txt"
"sandbox/syma"

See also¶

directory_iterator an iterator to the contents of the directory
(class)
directory_entry a directory entry
(class)
directory_options options for iterating directory contents
(enum)