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All Rights Reserved. .\" Portions Copyright (c) 2002, Sun Microsystems, Inc. All Rights Reserved .\" .TH FREAD 3C "Jul 24, 2002" .SH NAME fread \- binary input .SH SYNOPSIS .LP .nf #include \fBsize_t\fR \fBfread\fR(\fBvoid *\fR\fIptr\fR, \fBsize_t\fR \fIsize\fR, \fBsize_t\fR \fInitems\fR, \fBFILE *\fR\fIstream\fR); .fi .SH DESCRIPTION .sp .LP The \fBfread()\fR function reads into the array pointed to by \fIptr\fR up to \fInitems\fR elements whose size is specified by \fIsize\fR in bytes, from the stream pointed to by \fIstream\fR. For each object, \fIsize\fR calls are made to the \fBfgetc\fR(3C) function and the results stored, in the order read, in an array of \fBunsigned char\fR exactly overlaying the object. The file-position indicator for the stream (if defined) is advanced by the number of bytes successfully read. If an error occurs, the resulting value of the file-position indicator for the stream is unspecified. If a partial element is read, its value is unspecified. .sp .LP The \fBfread()\fR function may mark the \fBst_atime\fR field of the file associated with \fIstream\fR for update. The \fBst_atime\fR field will be marked for update by the first successful execution of \fBfgetc\fR(3C), \fBfgets\fR(3C), \fBfgetwc\fR(3C), \fBfgetws\fR(3C), \fBfread()\fR, \fBfscanf\fR(3C), \fBgetc\fR(3C), \fBgetchar\fR(3C), \fBgets\fR(3C), or \fBscanf\fR(3C) using \fIstream\fR that returns data not supplied by a prior call to \fBungetc\fR(3C) or \fBungetwc\fR(3C). .SH RETURN VALUES .sp .LP Upon successful completion, \fBfread()\fR returns the number of elements successfully read, which is less than \fInitems\fR only if a read error or end-of-file is encountered. If \fIsize\fR or \fInitems\fR is 0, \fBfread()\fR returns 0 and the contents of the array and the state of the stream remain unchanged. Otherwise, if a read error occurs, the error indicator for the stream is set and \fBerrno\fR is set to indicate the error. .SH ERRORS .sp .LP Refer to \fBfgetc\fR(3C). .SH EXAMPLES .LP \fBExample 1 \fRReading from a Stream .sp .LP The following example reads a single element from the \fIfp\fR stream into the array pointed to by \fIbuf\fR. .sp .in +2 .nf #include \&... size_t bytes_read; char buf[100]; FILE *fp; \&... bytes_read = fread(buf, sizeof(buf), 1, fp); \&... .fi .in -2 .SH USAGE .sp .LP The \fBferror()\fR or \fBfeof()\fR functions must be used to distinguish between an error condition and end-of-file condition. See \fBferror\fR(3C). .sp .LP Because of possible differences in element length and byte ordering, files written using \fBfwrite\fR(3C) are application-dependent, and possibly cannot be read using \fBfread()\fR by a different application or by the same application on a different processor. .SH ATTRIBUTES .sp .LP See \fBattributes\fR(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: .sp .sp .TS box; c | c l | l . ATTRIBUTE TYPE ATTRIBUTE VALUE _ Interface Stability Standard _ MT-Level MT-Safe .TE .SH SEE ALSO .sp .LP \fBread\fR(2), \fBfclose\fR(3C), \fBferror\fR(3C), \fBfopen\fR(3C), \fBgetc\fR(3C), \fBgets\fR(3C), \fBprintf\fR(3C), \fBputc\fR(3C), \fBputs\fR(3C), \fBattributes\fR(5), \fBstandards\fR(5)