Operating System APIs (C++)

Before using the OS APIs directly, take a look if the STL or boost already provides this functionality. Also be aware for a cross-platform software you have to implement it for all of them separately.

---

Example (File system access)

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <dirent.h>

void listFiles(const std::string& folder, std::vector<std::string>& files)
{
   DIR* posDir = opendir(folder.c_str());
   struct dirent* data;

   while ((data = readdir(posDir)) != NULL) {
      files.push_back(data->d_name);
   }

   closedir(posDir);
}

#include <windows.h>
 
void listFiles(const std::string& folder, std::vector<std::string>& files)
{
   std::string regEx(folder + "\\*");
   WIN32_FIND_DATA data;
   HANDLE hdl;

   if ((hdl = FindFirstFile(regEx.c_str(), &data)) != INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
   {
      do {
         files.push_back(data.cFileName);
      } while (FindNextFile(hdl, &data) != 0);

      FindClose(hdl);
   }
}

That scenario for example is already implemented in boost for a long time and got into the STL since C++17.