FGETLN(3)						   BSD Library Functions Manual 						 FGETLN(3)

NAME

     fgetln -- get a line from a stream

LIBRARY

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

     #include <stdio.h>

     char *
     fgetln(FILE * restrict stream, size_t * restrict len);

DESCRIPTION

     The fgetln() function returns a pointer to the next line from the stream referenced by stream.  This line is not a C string as it does not
     end with a terminating NUL character.  The length of the line, including the final newline, is stored in the memory location to which len
     points.  (Note, however, that if the line is the last in a file that does not end in a newline, the returned text will not contain a new-
     line.)

RETURN VALUES

     Upon successful completion a pointer is returned; this pointer becomes invalid after the next I/O operation on stream (whether successful or
     not) or as soon as the stream is closed.  Otherwise, NULL is returned.  The fgetln() function does not distinguish between end-of-file and
     error; the routines feof(3) and ferror(3) must be used to determine which occurred.  If an error occurs, the global variable errno is set to
     indicate the error.  The end-of-file condition is remembered, even on a terminal, and all subsequent attempts to read will return NULL until
     the condition is cleared with clearerr(3).

     The text to which the returned pointer points may be modified, provided that no changes are made beyond the returned size.  These changes are
     lost as soon as the pointer becomes invalid.

ERRORS

     [EBADF]  The argument stream is not a stream open for reading.

     The fgetln() function may also fail and set errno for any of the errors specified for the routines fflush(3), malloc(3), read(2), stat(2), or
     realloc(3).

SEE ALSO

     ferror(3), fgets(3), fopen(3), putc(3)

HISTORY

     The fgetln() function first appeared in 4.4BSD.

CAVEATS

     Since the returned buffer is not a C string (it is not null terminated), a common practice is to replace the newline character with ''.
     However, if the last line in a file does not contain a newline, the returned text won't contain a newline either.	The following code demon-
     strates how to deal with this problem by allocating a temporary buffer:

	     char *buf, *lbuf;
	     size_t len;

	     lbuf = NULL;
	     while ((buf = fgetln(fp, &len))) {
		     if (buf[len - 1] == '
')
			     buf[len - 1] = '';
		     else {
			     if ((lbuf = (char *)malloc(len + 1)) == NULL)
				     err(1, NULL);
			     memcpy(lbuf, buf, len);
			     lbuf[len] = '';
			     buf = lbuf;
		     }
		     printf("%s
", buf);

		     if (lbuf != NULL) {
			     free(lbuf);
			     lbuf = NULL;
		     }
	     }

BSD
								  April 21, 2004							       BSD