Hi, here is a simple puzzle I wanted to discuss.

A C program to take directory name as command line argument and print last 3 directories and 3 files in all subdirectories without using api 'system' inside it.

suppose directory bond0 contains bond1, di2, bond3, bond4, bond5 and my_file1, my_file2, my_file3, my_file4, my_file5, my_file6 and bond1 contains bond6 my_file7 my_file8 my_file9 my_file10 program should output - bond3, bond4, bond5, my_file4, my_file5, my_file6, bond6, my_file8, my_file9, my_file10 My code for the above problem is here

#include<dirent.h>
#include<unistd.h>
#include<string.h>
#include<sys/stat.h>
#include<stdlib.h>
#include<stdio.h>
char *directs[20], *files[20];
int i = 0;
int j = 0;
int count = 0;

void printdir(char *);
int count_dirs(char *);
int count_files(char *);
int main()
{
    char startdir[20];
    printf("Scanning user directories\n");
    scanf("%s", startdir);
    printdir(startdir);
}

void printdir(char *dir)
{

    printf("printdir called %d directory is %s\n", ++count, dir);
    DIR *dp = opendir(dir);
    int nDirs, nFiles, nD, nF;
    nDirs = 0;
    nFiles = 0;
    nD = 0;
    nF = 0;
    if (dp) {
        struct dirent *entry = 0;
        struct stat statBuf;

        nDirs = count_dirs(dir);
        nFiles = count_files(dir);
        printf("The no of subdirectories in %s is %d \n", dir, nDirs);
        printf("The no of files in %s is %d \n", dir, nFiles);

        while ((entry = readdir(dp)) != 0) {
            if (strcmp(entry->d_name, ".") == 0 || strcmp(entry->d_name, "..") == 0) {
                continue;
            }

            char *filepath =
                malloc(strlen(dir) + strlen(entry->d_name) + 2);
            if (filepath) {
                sprintf(filepath, "%s/%s", dir, entry->d_name);

                if (lstat(filepath, &statBuf) != 0) {
                }

                if (S_ISDIR(statBuf.st_mode)) {
                    nD++;
                    if ((nDirs - nD) < 3) {
                        printf("The directory is %s\n",entry->d_name);
                    }
                } else {
                    nF++;

                    if ((nFiles - nF) < 3) {
                        printf("The files are %s\n",
                               entry->d_name);
                    }   //if

                }   //else

                free(filepath);
            }   //if(filepath)

        }       //while

        while ((entry = readdir(dp)) != 0) {
            if (strcmp(entry->d_name, ".") == 0
                || strcmp(entry->d_name, "..") == 0) {
                continue;
            }
        printf("In second while loop *entry=%s\n",entry->d_name);
            char *filepath =
                malloc(strlen(dir) + strlen(entry->d_name) + 2);
            if (filepath) {
                sprintf(filepath, "%s/%s", dir, entry->d_name);

                if (lstat(filepath, &statBuf) != 0) {
                }

                if (S_ISDIR(statBuf.st_mode)) {
                    printdir(entry->d_name);

                }

            }   //else

            free(filepath);
        }       //2nd while


    closedir(dp);
}

    else {
        fprintf(stderr, "Error, cannot open directory %s\n", dir);
    }

}               //printdir

int count_dirs(char *dir)
{
    DIR *dp = opendir(dir);
    int nD;
    nD = 0;
    if (dp) {
        struct dirent *entry = 0;
        struct stat statBuf;

        while ((entry = readdir(dp)) != 0) {
            if (strcmp(entry->d_name, ".") == 0
                || strcmp(entry->d_name, "..") == 0) {
                continue;
            }

            char *filepath =
                malloc(strlen(dir) + strlen(entry->d_name) + 2);

            if (filepath) {
                sprintf(filepath, "%s/%s", dir, entry->d_name);

                if (lstat(filepath, &statBuf) != 0) {
                    fprintf(stderr, "File Not found? %s\n",
                        filepath);
                }

                if (S_ISDIR(statBuf.st_mode)) {
                    nD++;

                } else {
                    continue;
                }

                free(filepath);
            }
        }

        closedir(dp);
    } else {
        fprintf(stderr, "Error, cannot open directory %s\n", dir);
    }
    return nD;
}

int count_files(char *dir)
{
    DIR *dp = opendir(dir);
    int nF;
    nF = 0;
    if (dp) {
        struct dirent *entry = 0;
        struct stat statBuf;

        while ((entry = readdir(dp)) != 0) {
            if (strcmp(entry->d_name, ".") == 0
                || strcmp(entry->d_name, "..") == 0) {
                continue;
            }

            char *filepath =
                malloc(strlen(dir) + strlen(entry->d_name) + 2);

            if (filepath) {
                sprintf(filepath, "%s/%s", dir, entry->d_name);

                if (lstat(filepath, &statBuf) != 0) {
                    fprintf(stderr, "File Not found? %s\n",
                        filepath);
                }

                if (S_ISDIR(statBuf.st_mode)) {

                    continue;
                } else {
                    nF++;

                }

                free(filepath);
            }
        }

        closedir(dp);
    } else {
        fprintf(stderr, "Error, cannot open file %s\n", dir);
    }
    return nF;
}

The above code I wrote is a bit not functioning correctly can some one help me to understand the error which is coming.So that I improve it further.There seems to be some small glitch which is not clear to me right now.