xref: /freebsd/lib/libstdbuf/libstdbuf.3 (revision fa9896e0)
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25.Dd June 29, 2023
26.Dt LIBSTDBUF 3
27.Os
28.Sh NAME
29.Nm libstdbuf
30.Nd preloaded library to change standard streams initial buffering
31.Sh DESCRIPTION
32The
33.Nm
34library is meant to be preloaded with the
35.Ev LD_PRELOAD
36environment variable to as to change the initial buffering
37of standard input, standard output and standard error streams.
38.Pp
39Although you may load and configure this library manually,
40an utility,
41.Xr stdbuf 1 ,
42can be used to run a command with the appropriate environment variables.
43.Sh ENVIRONMENT
44Each stream can be configured independently through the following
45environment variables (values are defined below):
46.Bl -tag -width size -offset indent
47.It Ev _STDBUF_I
48Initial buffering definition for the standard input stream
49.It Ev _STDBUF_O
50Initial buffering definition for the standard output stream
51.It Ev _STDBUF_E
52Initial buffering definition for the standard error stream
53.El
54.Pp
55Each variable may take one of the following values:
56.Bl -tag -width size -offset indent
57.It Qq 0
58unbuffered
59.It Qq L
60line buffered
61.It Qq B
62fully buffered with the default buffer size
63.It Ar size
64fully buffered with a buffer of
65.Ar size
66bytes (suffixes 'k', 'M' and 'G' are accepted)
67.El
68.Sh EXAMPLE
69In the following example, the stdout stream of the
70.Xr awk 1
71command
72will be fully buffered by default because it does not refer
73to a terminal.
74.Nm
75is used to force it to be line-buffered so
76.Xr vmstat 8 Ns 's
77output will not stall until the full buffer fills.
78.Bd -literal -offset indent
79# vmstat 1 | LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libstdbuf.so \\
80    STDBUF_1=L awk '$2 > 1 || $3 > 1' | cat -n
81.Ed
82.Pp
83See
84.Xr stdbuf 1
85for a simpler way to do this.
86.Sh SEE ALSO
87.Xr rtld 1 ,
88.Xr stdbuf 1
89.Sh HISTORY
90The
91.Nm
92library first appeared in
93.Fx 8.4 .
94.Sh AUTHORS
95.An -nosplit
96The original idea of the
97.Nm
98command comes from
99.An Padraig Brady
100who implemented it in the GNU coreutils.
101.An Jeremie Le Hen
102implemented it on
103.Fx .
104