xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/stdio/fopen.3 (revision 8e6ab8837d8d6b9198e67c1c445300b483e2f304)
1.\"	$NetBSD: fopen.3,v 1.21 2003/04/16 13:34:44 wiz 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.In 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 * restrict 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 for reading.
73.It Dq Li r+
74Open for reading and writing.
75.It Dq Li w
76Open for writing.
77Truncate file to zero length or create file.
78.It Dq Li w+
79Open for reading and writing.
80Truncate file to zero length or create file.
81.It Dq Li a
82Append; open for writing.
83The file is created if it does not exist.
84.It Dq Li a+
85Append; open for reading and writing.
86The file is created if it does not exist.
87.El
88.Pp
89The
90.Fa mode
91string can also include the letter ``b'' either as a last character or
92as a character between the characters in any of the two-character strings
93described above.
94This is strictly for compatibility with
95.St -ansiC
96and has no effect; the ``b'' is ignored.
97.Pp
98The letter ``f'' in the mode string restricts fopen to regular
99files; if the file opened is not a regular file,
100.Fn fopen
101will fail.
102This is a non
103.St -ansiC
104extension.
105.Pp
106Any created files will have mode
107.Pf \\*q Dv S_IRUSR
108\&|
109.Dv S_IWUSR
110\&|
111.Dv S_IRGRP
112\&|
113.Dv S_IWGRP
114\&|
115.Dv S_IROTH
116\&|
117.Dv S_IWOTH Ns \\*q
118.Pq Li 0666 ,
119as modified by the process'
120umask value (see
121.Xr umask 2 ) .
122.Pp
123Opening a file with append mode causes all subsequent writes to it
124to be forced to the then current end of file, regardless of intervening
125repositioning of the stream.
126.Pp
127The
128.Fn fopen
129and
130.Fn freopen
131functions initially position the stream at the start of the file
132unless the file is opened with append mode,
133in which case the stream is initially positioned at the end of the file.
134.\" PR 6072 claims this paragraph is not correct.
135.\" .Pp
136.\" Reads and writes may be intermixed on read/write streams in any order,
137.\" and do not require an intermediate seek as in previous versions of
138.\" .Em stdio .
139.\" This is not portable to other systems, however;
140.\" .Tn ANSI C
141.\" requires that
142.\" a file positioning function intervene between output and input, unless
143.\" an input operation encounters end-of-file.
144.Pp
145The
146.Fn fdopen
147function associates a stream with the existing file descriptor,
148.Fa fildes .
149The
150.Fa mode
151of the stream must be compatible with the mode of the file descriptor.
152The stream is positioned at the file offset of the file descriptor.
153.Pp
154The
155.Fn freopen
156function
157opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by
158.Fa path
159and associates the stream pointed to by
160.Fa stream
161with it.
162The original stream (if it exists) is closed.
163The
164.Fa mode
165argument is used just as in the
166.Fn fopen
167function.
168The primary use of the
169.Fn freopen
170function
171is to change the file associated with a
172standard text stream
173.Pf ( Em stderr ,
174.Em stdin ,
175or
176.Em stdout ) .
177.Sh RETURN VALUES
178Upon successful completion
179.Fn fopen ,
180.Fn fdopen
181and
182.Fn freopen
183return a
184.Tn FILE
185pointer.
186Otherwise,
187.Dv NULL
188is returned and the global variable
189.Va errno
190is set to indicate the error.
191.Sh ERRORS
192.Bl -tag -width Er
193.It Bq Er EINVAL
194The
195.Fa mode
196provided to
197.Fn fopen ,
198.Fn fdopen ,
199or
200.Fn freopen
201was invalid.
202.It Bq Er EFTYPE
203The file is not a regular file and the character ``f'' is specified
204in the mode.
205.El
206.Pp
207The
208.Fn fopen ,
209.Fn fdopen
210and
211.Fn freopen
212functions
213may also fail and set
214.Va errno
215for any of the errors specified for the routine
216.Xr malloc 3 .
217.Pp
218The
219.Fn fopen
220function
221may also fail and set
222.Va errno
223for any of the errors specified for the routine
224.Xr open 2 .
225.Pp
226The
227.Fn fdopen
228function
229may also fail and set
230.Va errno
231for any of the errors specified for the routine
232.Xr fcntl 2 .
233.Pp
234The
235.Fn freopen
236function
237may also fail and set
238.Va errno
239for any of the errors specified for the routines
240.Xr open 2 ,
241.Xr fclose 3
242and
243.Xr fflush 3 .
244.Sh SEE ALSO
245.Xr open 2 ,
246.Xr fclose 3 ,
247.Xr fileno 3 ,
248.Xr fseek 3 ,
249.Xr funopen 3
250.Sh STANDARDS
251The
252.Fn fopen
253and
254.Fn freopen
255functions
256conform to
257.St -ansiC .
258The
259.Fn fdopen
260function conforms to
261.St -p1003.1-90 .
262.Sh CAVEATS
263Proper code using
264.Fn fdopen
265with error checking should
266.Xr close 2
267.Fa fildes
268in case of failure, and
269.Xr fclose 3
270the resulting FILE * in case of success.
271.Bd -literal
272	FILE *file;
273	int fd;
274
275	if ((file = fdopen(fd, "r")) != NULL) {
276		/* perform operations on the FILE * */
277		fclose(file);
278	} else {
279		/* failure, report the error */
280		close(fd);
281	}
282.Ed
283