STDIO(3) BSD Library Functions Manual STDIO(3)
NAME
stdio -- standard input/output library functions
LIBRARY
Standard C Library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdio.h>
FILE *stdin;
FILE *stdout;
FILE *stderr;
Note: The current implementation does not allow these variables to be evaluated at C compile/link time. That is, a runtime calculation must
be performed, such as:
#include <stdio.h>
static FILE *var;
int main() {
var = stdout;
}
DESCRIPTION
The standard I/O library provides a simple and efficient buffered stream I/O interface. Input and output is mapped into logical data streams
and the physical I/O characteristics are concealed. The functions and macros are listed below; more information is available from the indi-
vidual man pages.
A stream is associated with an external file (which may be a physical device) by opening a file, which may involve creating a new file. Cre-
ating an existing file causes its former contents to be discarded. If a file can support positioning requests (such as a disk file, as
opposed to a terminal) then a file position indicator associated with the stream is positioned at the start of the file (byte zero), unless
the file is opened with append mode. If append mode is used, the position indicator will be placed at the end-of-file. The position indica-
tor is maintained by subsequent reads, writes and positioning requests. All input occurs as if the characters were read by successive calls
to the fgetc(3) function; all output takes place as if all characters were written by successive calls to the fputc(3) function.
A file is disassociated from a stream by closing the file. Output streams are flushed (any unwritten buffer contents are transferred to the
host environment) before the stream is disassociated from the file. The value of a pointer to a FILE object is indeterminate (garbage) after
a file is closed.
A file may be subsequently reopened, by the same or another program execution, and its contents reclaimed or modified (if it can be reposi-
tioned at the start). If the main function returns to its original caller, or the exit(3) function is called, all open files are closed
(hence all output streams are flushed) before program termination. Other methods of program termination may not close files properly and
hence buffered output may be lost. In particular, _exit(2) does not flush stdio files. Neither does an exit due to a signal. Buffers are
flushed by abort(3) as required by POSIX, although previous implementations did not.
This implementation makes no distinction between ``text'' and ``binary'' streams. In effect, all streams are binary. No translation is per-
formed and no extra padding appears on any stream.
At program startup, three streams are predefined and need not be opened explicitly:
o standard input (for reading conventional input),
o standard output (for writing conventional output), and
o standard error (for writing diagnostic output).
These streams are abbreviated stdin, stdout and stderr. Initially, the standard error stream is unbuffered; the standard input and output
streams are fully buffered if and only if the streams do not refer to an interactive or ``terminal'' device, as determined by the isatty(3)
function. In fact, all freshly-opened streams that refer to terminal devices default to line buffering, and pending output to such streams
is written automatically whenever such an input stream is read. Note that this applies only to ``true reads''; if the read request can be
satisfied by existing buffered data, no automatic flush will occur. In these cases, or when a large amount of computation is done after
printing part of a line on an output terminal, it is necessary to fflush(3) the standard output before going off and computing so that the
output will appear. Alternatively, these defaults may be modified via the setvbuf(3) function.
The stdio library is a part of the library libc and routines are automatically loaded as needed by the C compiler. The SYNOPSIS sections of
the following manual pages indicate which include files are to be used, what the compiler declaration for the function looks like and which
external variables are of interest.
The following are defined as macros; these names may not be re-used without first removing their current definitions with #undef: BUFSIZ,
EOF, FILENAME_MAX, FOPEN_MAX, L_ctermid, L_cuserid, L_tmpnam, NULL, P_tmpdir, SEEK_CUR, SEEK_END, SEEK_SET, TMP_MAX, clearerr,
clearerr_unlocked, feof, feof_unlocked, ferror, ferror_unlocked, fileno, fileno_unlocked, fropen, fwopen, getc, getc_unlocked, getchar,
getchar_unlocked, putc, putc_unlocked, putchar, putchar_unlocked, stderr, stdin and stdout. Function versions of the macro functions
clearerr, clearerr_unlocked, feof, feof_unlocked, ferror, ferror_unlocked, fileno, fileno_unlocked, getc, getc_unlocked, getchar,
getchar_unlocked, putc, putc_unlocked, putchar, and putchar_unlocked exist and will be used if the macro definitions are explicitly removed.
LEGACY SYNOPSIS
The -D_NONSTD_SOURCE flag can be used to allow stdin, stdout, and/or stderr to be evaluated at compile/link time, as:
#include <stdio.h>
static FILE *var = stdout;
SEE ALSO
close(2), open(2), read(2), write(2), compat(5)
STANDARDS
The stdio library conforms to ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (``ISO C99'').
LIST OF FUNCTIONS
Function Description
asprintf formatted output conversion
clearerr check and reset stream status
fclose close a stream
fdopen stream open functions
feof check and reset stream status
ferror check and reset stream status
fflush flush a stream
fgetc get next character or word from input stream
fgetln get a line from a stream
fgetpos reposition a stream
fgets get a line from a stream
fgetwc get next wide character from input stream
fgetws get a line of wide characters from a stream
fileno check and reset stream status
fopen stream open functions
fprintf formatted output conversion
fpurge flush a stream
fputc output a character or word to a stream
fputs output a line to a stream
fputwc output a wide character to a stream
fputws output a line of wide characters to a stream
fread binary stream input/output
freopen stream open functions
fropen open a stream
fscanf input format conversion
fseek reposition a stream
fsetpos reposition a stream
ftell reposition a stream
funopen open a stream
fwide set/get orientation of stream
fwopen open a stream
fwprintf formatted wide character output conversion
fwrite binary stream input/output
getc get next character or word from input stream
getchar get next character or word from input stream
getdelim get a line from a stream
getline get a line from a stream
gets get a line from a stream
getw get next character or word from input stream
getwc get next wide character from input stream
getwchar get next wide character from input stream
mkdtemp create unique temporary directory
mkstemp create unique temporary file
mktemp create unique temporary file
perror system error messages
printf formatted output conversion
putc output a character or word to a stream
putchar output a character or word to a stream
puts output a line to a stream
putw output a character or word to a stream
putwc output a wide character to a stream
putwchar output a wide character to a stream
remove remove directory entry
rewind reposition a stream
scanf input format conversion
setbuf stream buffering operations
setbuffer stream buffering operations
setlinebuf stream buffering operations
setvbuf stream buffering operations
snprintf formatted output conversion
sprintf formatted output conversion
sscanf input format conversion
strerror system error messages
swprintf formatted wide character output conversion
sys_errlist system error messages
sys_nerr system error messages
tempnam temporary file routines
tmpfile temporary file routines
tmpnam temporary file routines
ungetc un-get character from input stream
ungetwc un-get wide character from input stream
vasprintf formatted output conversion
vfprintf formatted output conversion
vfscanf input format conversion
vfwprintf formatted wide character output conversion
vprintf formatted output conversion
vscanf input format conversion
vsnprintf formatted output conversion
vsprintf formatted output conversion
vsscanf input format conversion
vswprintf formatted wide character output conversion
vwprintf formatted wide character output conversion
wprintf formatted wide character output conversion
BUGS
The standard buffered functions do not interact well with certain other library and system functions, especially vfork(2).
BSD
March 3, 2009 BSD