xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/stdio/fopen.3 (revision 4472dbe5e3bd91ef2540bada7a7ca7384627ff9b)
1.\"	$NetBSD: fopen.3,v 1.11 2000/05/17 10:09:35 fair Exp $
2.\"
3.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993
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6.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
7.\" Chris Torek and the American National Standards Committee X3,
8.\" on Information Processing Systems.
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38.\"     @(#)fopen.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
39.\"
40.Dd June 4, 1993
41.Dt FOPEN 3
42.Os
43.Sh NAME
44.Nm fopen ,
45.Nm fdopen ,
46.Nm freopen
47.Nd stream open functions
48.Sh LIBRARY
49.Lb libc
50.Sh SYNOPSIS
51.Fd #include <stdio.h>
52.Ft FILE *
53.Fn fopen "const char *path" "const char *mode"
54.Ft FILE *
55.Fn fdopen "int fildes" "const char *mode"
56.Ft FILE *
57.Fn freopen "const char *path" "const char *mode" "FILE *stream"
58.Sh DESCRIPTION
59The
60.Fn fopen
61function
62opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by
63.Fa path
64and associates a stream with it.
65.Pp
66The argument
67.Fa mode
68points to a string beginning with one of the following
69sequences (Additional characters may follow these sequences.):
70.Bl -tag -width indent
71.It Dq Li r
72Open text file for reading.
73.It Dq Li r+
74Open for reading and writing.
75.It Dq Li w
76Truncate file to zero length or create text file for writing.
77.It Dq Li w+
78Open for reading and writing.
79The file is created if it does not exist, otherwise it is truncated.
80.It Dq Li a
81Append; open for writing.
82The file is created if it does not exist.
83.It Dq Li a+
84Append; open for reading and writing.
85The file is created if it does not exist.
86.El
87.Pp
88The
89.Fa mode
90string can also include the letter ``b'' either as a last character or
91as a character between the characters in any of the two-character strings
92described above.
93This is strictly for compatibility with
94.St -ansiC
95and has no effect; the ``b'' is ignored.
96In addition the letter ``f'' in the mode string restricts fopen to plain
97files; if the file opened is not a plain file,
98.Fn fopen
99will fail. This is a non
100.St -ansiC
101extension.
102.Pp
103Any created files will have mode
104.Pf \\*q Dv S_IRUSR
105\&|
106.Dv S_IWUSR
107\&|
108.Dv S_IRGRP
109\&|
110.Dv S_IWGRP
111\&|
112.Dv S_IROTH
113\&|
114.Dv S_IWOTH Ns \\*q
115.Pq Li 0666 ,
116as modified by the process'
117umask value (see
118.Xr umask 2 ) .
119.Pp
120Opening a file with append mode causes all subsequent writes to it
121to be forced to the then current end of file, regardless of intervening
122repositioning of the stream.
123.Pp
124The
125.Fn fopen
126and
127.Fn freopen
128functions initially position the stream at the start of the file
129unless the file is opened with append mode,
130in which case the stream is initially positioned at the end of the file.
131.\" PR 6072 claims this paragraph is not correct.
132.\" .Pp
133.\" Reads and writes may be intermixed on read/write streams in any order,
134.\" and do not require an intermediate seek as in previous versions of
135.\" .Em stdio .
136.\" This is not portable to other systems, however;
137.\" .Tn ANSI C
138.\" requires that
139.\" a file positioning function intervene between output and input, unless
140.\" an input operation encounters end-of-file.
141.Pp
142The
143.Fn fdopen
144function associates a stream with the existing file descriptor,
145.Fa fildes .
146The
147.Fa mode
148of the stream must be compatible with the mode of the file descriptor.
149The stream is positioned at the file offset of the file descriptor.
150.Pp
151The
152.Fn freopen
153function
154opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by
155.Fa path
156and associates the stream pointed to by
157.Fa stream
158with it.
159The original stream (if it exists) is closed.
160The
161.Fa mode
162argument is used just as in the
163.Fn fopen
164function.
165The primary use of the
166.Fn freopen
167function
168is to change the file associated with a
169standard text stream
170.Pf ( Em stderr ,
171.Em stdin ,
172or
173.Em stdout ) .
174.Sh RETURN VALUES
175Upon successful completion
176.Fn fopen ,
177.Fn fdopen
178and
179.Fn freopen
180return a
181.Tn FILE
182pointer.
183Otherwise,
184.Dv NULL
185is returned and the global variable
186.Va errno
187is set to indicate the error.
188.Sh ERRORS
189.Bl -tag -width Er
190.It Bq Er EINVAL
191The
192.Fa mode
193provided to
194.Fn fopen ,
195.Fn fdopen ,
196or
197.Fn freopen
198was invalid.
199.It Bq Er EFTYPE
200The file is not a plain file and the character ``f'' is specified
201in the mode.
202.El
203.Pp
204The
205.Fn fopen ,
206.Fn fdopen
207and
208.Fn freopen
209functions
210may also fail and set
211.Va errno
212for any of the errors specified for the routine
213.Xr malloc 3 .
214.Pp
215The
216.Fn fopen
217function
218may also fail and set
219.Va errno
220for any of the errors specified for the routine
221.Xr open 2 .
222.Pp
223The
224.Fn fdopen
225function
226may also fail and set
227.Va errno
228for any of the errors specified for the routine
229.Xr fcntl 2 .
230.Pp
231The
232.Fn freopen
233function
234may also fail and set
235.Va errno
236for any of the errors specified for the routines
237.Xr open 2 ,
238.Xr fclose 3
239and
240.Xr fflush 3 .
241.Sh SEE ALSO
242.Xr open 2 ,
243.Xr fclose 3 ,
244.Xr fseek 3 ,
245.Xr funopen 3
246.Sh STANDARDS
247The
248.Fn fopen
249and
250.Fn freopen
251functions
252conform to
253.St -ansiC .
254The
255.Fn fdopen
256function conforms to
257.St -p1003.1-90 .
258