xref: /dragonfly/lib/libstdbuf/libstdbuf.3 (revision 655933d6)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2012 Jeremie Le Hen <jlh@FreeBSD.org>
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25.\" $FreeBSD$
26.\"
27.Dd January 1, 2021
28.Dt LIBSTDBUF 3
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm libstdbuf
32.Nd preloaded library to change standard streams initial buffering
33.Sh DESCRIPTION
34The
35.Nm
36library is meant to be preloaded with the
37.Ev LD_PRELOAD
38environment variable so as to change the initial buffering
39of standard input, standard output and standard error streams.
40.Pp
41Although you may load and configure this library manually,
42an utility,
43.Xr stdbuf 1 ,
44can be used to run a command with the appropriate environment variables.
45.Sh ENVIRONMENT
46Each stream can be configured independently through the following
47environment variables (values are defined below):
48.Bl -tag -width size -offset indent
49.It Ev _STDBUF_I
50Initial buffering definition for the standard input stream
51.It Ev _STDBUF_O
52Initial buffering definition for the standard output stream
53.It Ev _STDBUF_E
54Initial buffering definition for the standard error stream
55.El
56.Pp
57Each variable may take one of the following values:
58.Bl -tag -width size -offset indent
59.It Qq 0
60unbuffered
61.It Qq L
62line buffered
63.It Qq B
64fully buffered with the default buffer size
65.It Ar size
66fully buffered with a buffer of
67.Ar size
68bytes (suffixes 'k', 'M' and 'G' are accepted)
69.El
70.Sh EXAMPLES
71In the following example, the stdout stream of the
72.Xr awk 1
73command
74will be fully buffered by default because it does not refer
75to a terminal.
76.Nm
77is used to force it to be line-buffered so
78.Xr vmstat 8 Ns 's
79output will not stall until the full buffer fills.
80.Bd -literal -offset indent
81# vmstat 1 | env LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libstdbuf.so _STDBUF_O=L \\
82      awk '$NF > 1' | cat -n
83.Ed
84.Pp
85See also the manpage of
86.Xr stdbuf 1
87for a simpler way to do this.
88.Sh SEE ALSO
89.Xr stdbuf 1
90.Sh HISTORY
91The
92.Nm
93library first appeared in
94.Fx 8.4 ,
95and was imported to
96.Dx 5.9 .
97.Sh AUTHORS
98.An Jeremie Le Hen
99implemented the
100.Nm
101library for the
102.Xr stdbuf 1
103utility on
104.Fx .
105