xref: /minix/lib/libc/stdio/fopen.3 (revision 00b67f09)
1.\"	$NetBSD: fopen.3,v 1.31 2015/07/15 19:08:43 christos Exp $
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34.\"     @(#)fopen.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
35.\"
36.Dd November 14, 2012
37.Dt FOPEN 3
38.Os
39.Sh NAME
40.Nm fopen ,
41.Nm fdopen ,
42.Nm freopen
43.Nd stream open functions
44.Sh LIBRARY
45.Lb libc
46.Sh SYNOPSIS
47.In stdio.h
48.Ft FILE *
49.Fn fopen "const char * restrict path" "const char * restrict mode"
50.Ft FILE *
51.Fn fdopen "int fildes" "const char *mode"
52.Ft FILE *
53.Fn freopen "const char * restrict path" "const char * restrict mode" "FILE * restrict stream"
54.Sh DESCRIPTION
55The
56.Fn fopen
57function
58opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by
59.Fa path
60and associates a stream with it.
61.Pp
62The argument
63.Fa mode
64points to a string beginning with one of the following
65sequences (Additional characters may follow these sequences.):
66.Bl -tag -width 4n
67.It Dq Li a
68Append; open for writing.
69The file is created if it does not exist.
70.It Dq Li a+
71Append; open for reading and writing.
72The file is created if it does not exist.
73.It Dq Li r
74Open for reading.
75.It Dq Li r+
76Open for reading and writing.
77.It Dq Li w
78Open for writing.
79Truncate file to zero length or create file.
80.It Dq Li w+
81Open for reading and writing.
82Truncate file to zero length or create file.
83.El
84.Pp
85Additionally, the
86.Fa mode
87string can also include one of the following letters:
88.Bl -tag -width 4n
89.It Sq b
90The letter
91.Sq b
92may appear either as a last character or as a character between the
93characters in any of the two-character strings described above.
94This is strictly for compatibility with
95.St -ansiC
96and has no effect; the
97.Sq b
98is ignored.
99.It Sq e
100The letter
101.Sq e
102in the mode string sets the close-on-exec flag in the file descriptors of
103the newly opened file files; if the operation fails,
104.Fn fopen
105will fail.
106This is a non
107.St -ansiC
108extension.
109.It Sq f
110The letter
111.Sq f
112in the mode string restricts
113.Fn fopen
114to regular files; if the file opened is not a regular file,
115.Fn fopen
116will fail.
117This is a non
118.St -ansiC
119extension.
120.It Sq x
121The letter
122.Sq x
123in the mode turns on exclusive open mode to the file
124.Pq Dv O_EXCL
125which means that the file will not be created if it already exists.
126.El
127.Pp
128Any created files will have mode
129.Pf \*q Dv S_IRUSR
130\&|
131.Dv S_IWUSR
132\&|
133.Dv S_IRGRP
134\&|
135.Dv S_IWGRP
136\&|
137.Dv S_IROTH
138\&|
139.Dv S_IWOTH Ns \*q
140.Pq Li 0666 ,
141as modified by the process'
142.Xr umask 2
143value.
144.Pp
145Opening a file with append mode causes all subsequent writes to it
146to be forced to the then current end of file, regardless of intervening
147repositioning of the stream.
148.Pp
149The
150.Fn fopen
151and
152.Fn freopen
153functions initially position the stream at the start of the file
154unless the file is opened with append mode,
155in which case the stream is initially positioned at the end of the file.
156.\" PR 6072 claims this paragraph is not correct.
157.\" .Pp
158.\" Reads and writes may be intermixed on read/write streams in any order,
159.\" and do not require an intermediate seek as in previous versions of
160.\" .Em stdio .
161.\" This is not portable to other systems, however;
162.\" .Tn ANSI C
163.\" requires that
164.\" a file positioning function intervene between output and input, unless
165.\" an input operation encounters end-of-file.
166.Pp
167The
168.Fn fdopen
169function associates a stream with the existing file descriptor,
170.Fa fildes .
171The
172.Fa mode
173of the stream must be compatible with the mode of the file descriptor.
174The stream is positioned at the file offset of the file descriptor.
175.Pp
176The
177.Fn freopen
178function
179opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by
180.Fa path
181and associates the stream pointed to by
182.Fa stream
183with it.
184The original stream (if it exists) is closed.
185The
186.Fa mode
187argument is used just as in the
188.Fn fopen
189function.
190The primary use of the
191.Fn freopen
192function
193is to change the file associated with a
194standard text stream
195.Pf ( Em stderr ,
196.Em stdin ,
197or
198.Em stdout ) .
199.Pp
200Input and output against the opened stream will be fully buffered, unless
201it refers to an interactive terminal device, or a different kind of buffering
202is specified in the environment.
203See
204.Xr setvbuf 3
205for additional details.
206.Sh RETURN VALUES
207Upon successful completion
208.Fn fopen ,
209.Fn fdopen
210and
211.Fn freopen
212return a
213.Tn FILE
214pointer.
215Otherwise,
216.Dv NULL
217is returned and the global variable
218.Va errno
219is set to indicate the error.
220.Sh ERRORS
221The functions may fail if:
222.Bl -tag -width Er
223.It Bq Er EFTYPE
224The file is not a regular file and the character ``f'' is specified
225in the mode.
226.It Bq Er EINVAL
227The specified
228.Fa mode
229was invalid.
230.El
231.Pp
232The
233.Fn fopen ,
234.Fn fdopen
235and
236.Fn freopen
237functions
238may also fail and set
239.Va errno
240for any of the errors specified for the routine
241.Xr malloc 3 .
242.Pp
243The
244.Fn fopen
245function
246may also fail and set
247.Va errno
248for any of the errors specified for the routine
249.Xr open 2 .
250.Pp
251The
252.Fn fdopen
253function
254may also fail and set
255.Va errno
256for any of the errors specified for the routine
257.Xr fcntl 2 .
258.Pp
259The
260.Fn freopen
261function
262may also fail and set
263.Va errno
264for any of the errors specified for the routines
265.Xr open 2 ,
266.Xr fclose 3
267and
268.Xr fflush 3 .
269.Sh SEE ALSO
270.Xr open 2 ,
271.Xr fclose 3 ,
272.Xr fileno 3 ,
273.Xr fseek 3 ,
274.Xr funopen 3
275.Sh STANDARDS
276The
277.Fn fopen
278and
279.Fn freopen
280functions conform to
281.St -ansiC .
282All three functions are specified in
283.St -p1003.1-2008 .
284.Sh CAVEATS
285Proper code using
286.Fn fdopen
287with error checking should
288.Xr close 2
289.Fa fildes
290in case of failure, and
291.Xr fclose 3
292the resulting FILE * in case of success.
293.Bd -literal
294	FILE *file;
295	int fd;
296
297	if ((file = fdopen(fd, "r")) != NULL) {
298		/* perform operations on the FILE * */
299		fclose(file);
300	} else {
301		/* failure, report the error */
302		close(fd);
303	}
304.Ed
305