xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/stdio/fopen.3 (revision 89c5a767f8fc7a4633b2d409966e2becbb98ff92)
1.\"	$NetBSD: fopen.3,v 1.10 2000/01/15 01:11:45 christos Exp $
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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,
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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.Pp
132Reads and writes may be intermixed on read/write streams in any order,
133and do not require an intermediate seek as in previous versions of
134.Em stdio .
135This is not portable to other systems, however;
136.Tn ANSI C
137requires that
138a file positioning function intervene between output and input, unless
139an input operation encounters end-of-file.
140.Pp
141The
142.Fn fdopen
143function associates a stream with the existing file descriptor,
144.Fa fildes .
145The
146.Fa mode
147of the stream must be compatible with the mode of the file descriptor.
148The stream is positioned at the file offset of the file descriptor.
149.Pp
150The
151.Fn freopen
152function
153opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by
154.Fa path
155and associates the stream pointed to by
156.Fa stream
157with it.
158The original stream (if it exists) is closed.
159The
160.Fa mode
161argument is used just as in the
162.Fn fopen
163function.
164The primary use of the
165.Fn freopen
166function
167is to change the file associated with a
168standard text stream
169.Pf ( Em stderr ,
170.Em stdin ,
171or
172.Em stdout ) .
173.Sh RETURN VALUES
174Upon successful completion
175.Fn fopen ,
176.Fn fdopen
177and
178.Fn freopen
179return a
180.Tn FILE
181pointer.
182Otherwise,
183.Dv NULL
184is returned and the global variable
185.Va errno
186is set to indicate the error.
187.Sh ERRORS
188.Bl -tag -width Er
189.It Bq Er EINVAL
190The
191.Fa mode
192provided to
193.Fn fopen ,
194.Fn fdopen ,
195or
196.Fn freopen
197was invalid.
198.It Bq Er EFTYPE
199The file is not a plain file and the character ``f'' is specified
200in the mode.
201.El
202.Pp
203The
204.Fn fopen ,
205.Fn fdopen
206and
207.Fn freopen
208functions
209may also fail and set
210.Va errno
211for any of the errors specified for the routine
212.Xr malloc 3 .
213.Pp
214The
215.Fn fopen
216function
217may also fail and set
218.Va errno
219for any of the errors specified for the routine
220.Xr open 2 .
221.Pp
222The
223.Fn fdopen
224function
225may also fail and set
226.Va errno
227for any of the errors specified for the routine
228.Xr fcntl 2 .
229.Pp
230The
231.Fn freopen
232function
233may also fail and set
234.Va errno
235for any of the errors specified for the routines
236.Xr open 2 ,
237.Xr fclose 3
238and
239.Xr fflush 3 .
240.Sh SEE ALSO
241.Xr open 2 ,
242.Xr fclose 3 ,
243.Xr fseek 3 ,
244.Xr funopen 3
245.Sh STANDARDS
246The
247.Fn fopen
248and
249.Fn freopen
250functions
251conform to
252.St -ansiC .
253The
254.Fn fdopen
255function conforms to
256.St -p1003.1-90 .
257