Find all files in all directories in c++ - c++

Question

I am trying to find all files in all directories, but I don't know how to handle subdirectories. In this code, the code looks trough all subdirs, but I don't know how to jump back. Does anyone know how to do this?
__declspec(dllexport) void GetFiles(char* filedir, char* path)
{
string s[1000];
string path2 = path;
UINT index = 0;
WIN32_FIND_DATA ffd;
TCHAR szDir[MAX_PATH];
HANDLE hFind = INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE;
DWORD dwError=0;
StringCchCopy(szDir, MAX_PATH, filedir);
if (INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE == hFind)
return;
do
{
DWORD attributes = ffd.dwFileAttributes;
if (attributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_HIDDEN)
continue;
else if (attributes & FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY)
{
TCHAR dir2[MAX_PATH];
path2 = path;
path2 += ffd.cFileName;
path2 += "\\*";
StringCchCopy(dir2, MAX_PATH, path2.c_str());
SetCurrentDirectory(dir2);
}
else
{
s[index] = path;
s[index] += ffd.cFileName;
index++;
}
}
while (FindNextFile(hFind, &ffd) >= 0); // needs to jump back if zero
FindClose(hFind);
}
EDIT: functions had the same name which confused the compiler

Answer 1

I think the easiest way to do it is by doing a recursive function.
This would roughly look like something like this in "c" pseudo code
void GetFiles( char*** file_path_table, char* dir )
{
char **file_paths;
file_paths = getAllFiles( dir );
foreach( path in file_paths )
{
if ( is_directory( path ) )
{
GetFiles( file_path_table, path );
}
else
{
add_file_to_table( file_path_table, path );
}
}
}

Answer 2

Why not use the boost recursive_directory_iterator.
Note: untested (but should look something like this).
namespace bfs = boost::filesystem;
std::vector<std::string> filenames;
std::copy(bfs::recursive_directory_iterator("<path>"),
bfs::recursive_directory_iterator(),
std::back_inserter(filenames)
);

Answer 3

Instead of changing directory via SetCurrentDirectory() use a recursive call on GetFiles(). This would require that the caller pass in a reference to an array (or std::vector<std::string>) for the list of files to be stored in instead of using the local array s.

Answer 4

I'd have a look at the directory iterators of boost instead.
http://www.boost.org/doc/libs/1_51_0/libs/filesystem/doc/index.htm
There are examples covering what you are trying to do, and it will work for almost any OS you can think of.
Have a look at example 3. It shows how to loop over all contents of the directory. If you find a new directory you have not seen before, you just do the same on that. There are tests telling you if the file is regular, directory etc so give it a try.

Answer 5

Doing a bit of searching through old posts, I guess I've mentioned doing a breadth-first search a number of times, but never really posted code to show how to do it. I guess I might as well do that.
#include <windows.h>
#include <queue>
#include <string>
#include <iostream>
// I think MS's names for some things are obnoxious.
const HANDLE HNULL = INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE;
const int A_DIR = FILE_ATTRIBUTE_DIRECTORY;
// We'll process a file by printing its path/name
void process(std::string const &path, WIN32_FIND_DATA const &file) {
std::cout << path << file.cFileName << "\n";
}
void find_file(std::string const &folder_name, std::string const &fmask) {
HANDLE finder; // for FindFirstFile
WIN32_FIND_DATA file; // data about current file.
std::priority_queue<std::string, std::vector<std::string>,
std::greater<std::string> > dirs;
dirs.push(folder_name); // start with passed directory
do {
std::string path = dirs.top();// retrieve directory to search
dirs.pop();
if (path[path.size()-1] != '\\') // normalize the name.
path += "\\";
std::string mask = path + fmask; // create mask for searching
// traverse a directory. Search for sub-dirs separately, because we
// don't want a mask to apply to directory names. "*.cpp" should find
// "a\b.cpp", even though "a" doesn't match "*.cpp".
//
// First search for files:
if (HNULL==(finder=FindFirstFile(mask.c_str(), &file)))
continue;
do {
if (!(file.dwFileAttributes & A_DIR))
process(path, file);
} while (FindNextFile(finder, &file));
FindClose(finder);
// Then search for subdirectories:
if (HNULL==(finder=FindFirstFile((path + "*").c_str(), &file)))
continue;
do {
if ((file.dwFileAttributes & A_DIR) && (file.cFileName[0] != '.'))
dirs.push(path + file.cFileName);
} while (FindNextFile(finder, &file));
FindClose(finder);
} while (!dirs.empty());
}
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
if (argc > 2)
find_file(argv[1], argv[2]);
else
find_file("C:\\", "*");
return 0;
}