List files in a directory in c - c

Question

I am using the code below to save file names to an array. I got the code from here save file names to an array. When I run this code it says that there are 5 files in the directory (i.e. count is 5), however, there are only 3. Could somebody verify if this is correct or am I making a bad mistake?
#include <string.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <dirent.h>
#include <malloc.h>
size_t file_list(const char *path, char ***ls) {
size_t count = 0;
size_t length = 0;
DIR *dp = NULL;
struct dirent *ep = NULL;
dp = opendir(path);
if(NULL == dp) {
fprintf(stderr, "no such directory: '%s'", path);
return 0;
}
*ls = NULL;
ep = readdir(dp);
while(NULL != ep){
count++;
ep = readdir(dp);
}
rewinddir(dp);
*ls = calloc(count, sizeof(char *));
count = 0;
ep = readdir(dp);
while(NULL != ep){
(*ls)[count++] = strdup(ep->d_name);
ep = readdir(dp);
}
closedir(dp);
return count;
}
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
char **files;
size_t count;
int i;
count = file_list("/home/rgerganov", &files);
for (i = 0; i < count; i++) {
printf("%s\n", files[i]);
}
}

Answer 1

I asked myself the same question for a school project a few months ago. When you use the dirent structure and you list them accessing the element d_name, it actually counts the directories PLUS the "." and the "..", so it's normal. If you don't want to take them as directories, just create an iterator variable for the loop and add a condition like:
int i = 0;
while (condition)
{
if (ep->d_name[i] == '.' )
{
++i;
}
//do stuff here
}