lseek(2) [redhat man page]
LSEEK(2) System calls LSEEK(2) NAME
lseek - reposition read/write file offset SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/types.h> #include <unistd.h> off_t lseek(int fildes, off_t offset, int whence); DESCRIPTION
The lseek function repositions the offset of the file descriptor fildes to the argument offset according to the directive whence as fol- lows: SEEK_SET The offset is set to offset bytes. SEEK_CUR The offset is set to its current location plus offset bytes. SEEK_END The offset is set to the size of the file plus offset bytes. The lseek function allows the file offset to be set beyond the end of the existing end-of-file of the file. If data is later written at this point, subsequent reads of the data in the gap return bytes of zeros (until data is actually written into the gap). RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, lseek returns the resulting offset location as measured in bytes from the beginning of the file. Otherwise, a value of (off_t)-1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error. ERRORS
EBADF Fildes is not an open file descriptor. ESPIPE Fildes is associated with a pipe, socket, or FIFO. EINVAL Whence is not a proper value. CONFORMING TO
SVr4, POSIX, BSD 4.3 RESTRICTIONS
Some devices are incapable of seeking and POSIX does not specify which devices must support it. Linux specific restrictions: using lseek on a tty device returns ESPIPE. Other systems return the number of written characters, using SEEK_SET to set the counter. Some devices, e.g. /dev/null do not cause the error ESPIPE, but return a pointer which value is undefined. NOTES
This document's use of whence is incorrect English, but maintained for historical reasons. When converting old code, substitute values for whence with the following macros: old new 0 SEEK_SET 1 SEEK_CUR 2 SEEK_END L_SET SEEK_SET L_INCR SEEK_CUR L_XTND SEEK_END SVR1-3 returns long instead of off_t, BSD returns int. Note that file descriptors created by dup(2) or fork(2) share the current file position pointer, so seeking on such files may be subject to race conditions. SEE ALSO
dup(2), fork(2), open(2), fseek(3) Linux 2001-09-24 LSEEK(2)
Check Out this Related Man Page
LSEEK(2) BSD System Calls Manual LSEEK(2) NAME
lseek -- reposition read/write file offset SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h> off_t lseek(int fildes, off_t offset, int whence); DESCRIPTION
The lseek() function repositions the offset of the file descriptor fildes to the argument offset, according to the directive whence. The argument fildes must be an open file descriptor. lseek() repositions the file pointer fildes as follows: If whence is SEEK_SET, the offset is set to offset bytes. If whence is SEEK_CUR, the offset is set to its current location plus offset bytes. If whence is SEEK_END, the offset is set to the size of the file plus offset bytes. If whence is SEEK_HOLE, the offset is set to the start of the next hole greater than or equal to the supplied offset. The definition of a hole is provided below. If whence is SEEK_DATA, the offset is set to the start of the next non-hole file region greater than or equal to the supplied offset. The lseek() function allows the file offset to be set beyond the end of the existing end-of-file of the file. If data is later written at this point, subsequent reads of the data in the gap return bytes of zeros (until data is actually written into the gap). Some devices are incapable of seeking. The value of the pointer associated with such a device is undefined. A "hole" is defined as a contiguous range of bytes in a file, all having the value of zero, but not all zeros in a file are guaranteed to be represented as holes returned with SEEK_HOLE. File systems are allowed to expose ranges of zeros with SEEK_HOLE, but not required to. Applications can use SEEK_HOLE to optimise their behavior for ranges of zeros, but must not depend on it to find all such ranges in a file. Each file is presented as having a zero-size virtual hole at the very end of the file. The existence of a hole at the end of every data region allows for easy programming and also provides compatibility to the original implementation in Solaris. It also causes the current file size (i.e., end-of-file offset) to be returned to indicate that there are no more holes past the supplied offset. Applications should use fpathconf(_PC_MIN_HOLE_SIZE) or pathconf(_PC_MIN_HOLE_SIZE) to determine if a file system supports SEEK_HOLE. See pathconf(2). For file systems that do not supply information about holes, the file will be represented as one entire data region. RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, lseek() returns the resulting offset location as measured in bytes from the beginning of the file. Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error. ERRORS
lseek() will fail and the file pointer will remain unchanged if: [EBADF] Fildes is not an open file descriptor. [EINVAL] Whence is not a proper value. [EINVAL] The seek location (calculated from offset and whence) is negative. [ENXIO] For SEEK_DATA, there are no more data regions past the supplied offset. Due to existence of the hole at the end of the file, for SEEK_HOLE this error is only returned when the offset already points to the end-of-file position. [EOVERFLOW] The seek location is too large to be stored in an object of type off_t. [ESPIPE] Fildes is associated with a pipe, socket, or FIFO. SEE ALSO
dup(2), open(2) BUGS
This document's use of whence is incorrect English, but is maintained for historical reasons. STANDARDS
The lseek() function conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-1988 (``POSIX.1''). 4th Berkeley Distribution April 19, 1994 4th Berkeley Distribution