Unable to create directory in C?

Question

I'm trying to create directory using C in windows. There are commands which work perfectly, but I first want to "cd" in a certain directory and then create the directory.

I'm using this code:

struct dirent *de;
DIR *dr = opendir("db/medicine/");
if (dr == NULL)
{
    printf("Could not open current directory" );
    return 0;
}
while ((de = readdir(dr)) != NULL)
{
    printf("%s\n", de->d_name);
    if(medicine.name == de->d_name)
    {
        directory_name_hit = 1;
        printf("\n\n This medicine db already exists!\n");
        printf("Please use edit menu for same medicine database. Redirecting ... ");
        Sleep(2000);
        admin_area();
    }
    else
    {
        directory_name_hit = 0;
        char *temp1 = "cd \\db\\medicine\\ & mkdir ";
        char *command = malloc(sizeof(strlen("cd \\db\\medicine\\ & mkdir "+strlen(medicine.name))));
        strcpy(command, temp1);
        strcat(command, medicine.name);

        printf(command);
        system(command);
    }

}
closedir(dr);

I've the following includes:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <windows.h>
#include <dirent.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <dir.h>
#include <process.h>

The following error comes when I run the code:

.
cd \db\medicine\ & mkdir adThe system cannot find the path specified.
..
cd \db\medicine\ & mkdir ad
Process returned -1073741819 (0xC0000005)   execution time : 18.897 s
Press any key to continue.

Why does't system run the correct command? It should work. The path is correct and there is no sub directory with same names..

You don't use `==` to compare strings in C, you have to use `strcmp()`. This is really basic. — Barmar, May 05 '18 at 08:43
You need to add 1 to the size you malloc to allow room for the trailing null bytes. — Barmar, May 05 '18 at 08:46
Why do you need to cd? Just do `mkdir /db/medicine/filename`? — Barmar, May 05 '18 at 08:47
Is `db` really in the root of your disk? At the beginning you open `db/medicine`, not `/db/medicine`. — Barmar, May 05 '18 at 08:47
You shouldn't create the directory in the `else` block. That just tells you that the current filename doesn't match what you're looking for, but it could be a later filename. See https://stackoverflow.com/questions/42913798/searching-array-reports-not-found-even-though-its-found/42913882#42913882 — Barmar, May 05 '18 at 08:49
Why do you even need a loop? Just try to open `db/medicine/dirname`. If it fails, then the directory doesn't exist and you should create it. — Barmar, May 05 '18 at 08:50
Thanks Barmar. Strcmp was better. I've made changes and they work. The folder gets created and then I close the cmd window using "& exit". — SimpleCoder, May 05 '18 at 13:08

SimpleCoder · Accepted Answer · 2018-05-05T13:46:52.483

Thanks everyone.

I found another better way to do it. The following is the new code that works smooth:

// check if directory exists
    // then make medicine directory
    char *temp1 = "C:\\pharmaCMS\\db\\medicine\\";
    char *result = malloc(sizeof(strlen(temp1) + strlen(medicine.name)));
    strcpy(result, temp1);
    strcat(result, medicine.name);

    struct stat sb;

    if (stat(result, &sb) == 0 && S_ISDIR(sb.st_mode))
    {
        printf("YES\n");
    }
    else
    {
        printf("NO\n");
        CreateDirectory("C:\\pharmaCMS", NULL);
        CreateDirectory("C:\\pharmaCMS\\db", NULL);
        CreateDirectory("C:\\pharmaCMS\\db\\medicine", NULL);
        CreateDirectory(result, NULL);
    }

I notices that if we add the full path in CreateDirectory, it doesn't create the root directories.. For creating each directory, we have to pass individual commands.

Unable to create directory in C?

1 Answers1