xref: /netbsd-src/lib/libc/stdio/fopen.3 (revision 95d875fb90b1458e4f1de6950286ddcd6644bc61)
1.\"	$NetBSD: fopen.3,v 1.9 1999/01/12 15:27:28 kleink Exp $
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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 third 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.
96.Pp
97Any created files will have mode
98.Pf \\*q Dv S_IRUSR
99\&|
100.Dv S_IWUSR
101\&|
102.Dv S_IRGRP
103\&|
104.Dv S_IWGRP
105\&|
106.Dv S_IROTH
107\&|
108.Dv S_IWOTH Ns \\*q
109.Pq Li 0666 ,
110as modified by the process'
111umask value (see
112.Xr umask 2 ) .
113.Pp
114Opening a file with append mode causes all subsequent writes to it
115to be forced to the then current end of file, regardless of intervening
116repositioning of the stream.
117.Pp
118The
119.Fn fopen
120and
121.Fn freopen
122functions initially position the stream at the start of the file
123unless the file is opened with append mode,
124in which case the stream is initially positioned at the end of the file.
125.Pp
126Reads and writes may be intermixed on read/write streams in any order,
127and do not require an intermediate seek as in previous versions of
128.Em stdio .
129This is not portable to other systems, however;
130.Tn ANSI C
131requires that
132a file positioning function intervene between output and input, unless
133an input operation encounters end-of-file.
134.Pp
135The
136.Fn fdopen
137function associates a stream with the existing file descriptor,
138.Fa fildes .
139The
140.Fa mode
141of the stream must be compatible with the mode of the file descriptor.
142The stream is positioned at the file offset of the file descriptor.
143.Pp
144The
145.Fn freopen
146function
147opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by
148.Fa path
149and associates the stream pointed to by
150.Fa stream
151with it.
152The original stream (if it exists) is closed.
153The
154.Fa mode
155argument is used just as in the
156.Fn fopen
157function.
158The primary use of the
159.Fn freopen
160function
161is to change the file associated with a
162standard text stream
163.Pf ( Em stderr ,
164.Em stdin ,
165or
166.Em stdout ) .
167.Sh RETURN VALUES
168Upon successful completion
169.Fn fopen ,
170.Fn fdopen
171and
172.Fn freopen
173return a
174.Tn FILE
175pointer.
176Otherwise,
177.Dv NULL
178is returned and the global variable
179.Va errno
180is set to indicate the error.
181.Sh ERRORS
182.Bl -tag -width Er
183.It Bq Er EINVAL
184The
185.Fa mode
186provided to
187.Fn fopen ,
188.Fn fdopen ,
189or
190.Fn freopen
191was invalid.
192.El
193.Pp
194The
195.Fn fopen ,
196.Fn fdopen
197and
198.Fn freopen
199functions
200may also fail and set
201.Va errno
202for any of the errors specified for the routine
203.Xr malloc 3 .
204.Pp
205The
206.Fn fopen
207function
208may also fail and set
209.Va errno
210for any of the errors specified for the routine
211.Xr open 2 .
212.Pp
213The
214.Fn fdopen
215function
216may also fail and set
217.Va errno
218for any of the errors specified for the routine
219.Xr fcntl 2 .
220.Pp
221The
222.Fn freopen
223function
224may also fail and set
225.Va errno
226for any of the errors specified for the routines
227.Xr open 2 ,
228.Xr fclose 3
229and
230.Xr fflush 3 .
231.Sh SEE ALSO
232.Xr open 2 ,
233.Xr fclose 3 ,
234.Xr fseek 3 ,
235.Xr funopen 3
236.Sh STANDARDS
237The
238.Fn fopen
239and
240.Fn freopen
241functions
242conform to
243.St -ansiC .
244The
245.Fn fdopen
246function conforms to
247.St -p1003.1-90 .
248