An example of how to manipulate a directory entry

dirent.c

#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <dirent.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdio.h>

static int path_scan(char *path)
{
	DIR *d;
	struct dirent *ent;

	if (!(d = opendir(path)))
		return -1;

	while ((ent = readdir(d))) {
		char name[256];
		struct stat sbuf;
		FILE *f;
		int c = 0;

		sprintf(name, "%s/%s", path, ent->d_name);
		if (stat(name, &sbuf)) {
			printf("unable to stat %s... continuing\n", name);
			continue;
		}

		if (S_ISDIR(sbuf.st_mode)) {
			printf("%s is a directory... continuing\n", name);
			continue;
		}

		if (S_ISCHR(sbuf.st_mode)) {
			printf("%s is a character device... continuing\n",
				name);
			continue;
		}

		if (S_ISBLK(sbuf.st_mode)) {
			printf("%s is a block device... continuing\n", name);
			continue;
		}

		if (S_ISFIFO(sbuf.st_mode)) {
			printf("%s is a fifo device... continuing\n", name);
			continue;
		}

		if (S_ISLNK(sbuf.st_mode)) {
			printf("%s is a symbolic link... continuing\n", name);
			continue;
		}

		if (S_ISSOCK(sbuf.st_mode)) {
			printf("%s is a socket... continuing\n", name);
			continue;
		}

		if (!(S_ISREG(sbuf.st_mode))) {
			printf("%s is not a regular file... continuing\n",
				name);
			continue;
		}

		if (!(f = fopen(name, "r"))) {
			printf("could not open file %s/%s\n", path, name);
			continue;
		}

		if (fread(&c, sizeof(char), 1, f) != 1) {
			printf("could not read a character from %s\n", name);
			fclose(f);
			continue;
		}

		fclose(f);
		printf("first character in %s is: %d ", name, c);
		if (20 <= c && c <=126)
			printf("('%c')", (char)c);
		else
			printf("(N/A)");
		printf("\n");
	}

	return closedir(d);
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
	if (argc !=2) {
		printf("usage: path <path_name>\n");
		return -1;
	}
	return path_scan(argv[1]);
}