xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/stdio/fflush.3 (revision d4eeb02986980bf33dd56c41ceb9fc5f180c0d47)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
5.\" Chris Torek and the American National Standards Committee X3,
6.\" on Information Processing Systems.
7.\"
8.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
9.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
10.\" are met:
11.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
12.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
13.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
14.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
15.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
16.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
17.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
18.\"    without specific prior written permission.
19.\"
20.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
21.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
22.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
23.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
24.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
25.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
26.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
27.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
28.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
29.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
30.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
31.\"
32.\"     @(#)fflush.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd May 1, 2020
36.Dt FFLUSH 3
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm fflush ,
40.Nm fflush_unlocked ,
41.Nm fpurge
42.Nd flush a stream
43.Sh LIBRARY
44.Lb libc
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.In stdio.h
47.Ft int
48.Fn fflush "FILE *stream"
49.Ft int
50.Fn fflush_unlocked "FILE *stream"
51.Ft int
52.Fn fpurge "FILE *stream"
53.Sh DESCRIPTION
54The function
55.Fn fflush
56forces a write of all buffered data for the given output or update
57.Fa stream
58via the stream's underlying write function.
59The open status of the stream is unaffected.
60.Pp
61If the
62.Fa stream
63argument is
64.Dv NULL ,
65.Fn fflush
66flushes
67.Em all
68open output streams.
69.Pp
70The
71.Fn fflush_unlocked
72function is equivalent to
73.Fn fflush ,
74except that the caller is responsible for locking the stream with
75.Xr flockfile 3
76before calling it.
77This function may be used to avoid the overhead of locking the stream and to
78prevent races when multiple threads are operating on the same stream.
79.Pp
80The function
81.Fn fpurge
82erases any input or output buffered in the given
83.Fa stream .
84For output streams this discards any unwritten output.
85For input streams this discards any input read from the underlying object
86but not yet obtained via
87.Xr getc 3 ;
88this includes any text pushed back via
89.Xr ungetc 3 .
90.Sh RETURN VALUES
91Upon successful completion 0 is returned.
92Otherwise,
93.Dv EOF
94is returned and the global variable
95.Va errno
96is set to indicate the error.
97.Sh ERRORS
98.Bl -tag -width Er
99.It Bq Er EBADF
100The
101.Fa stream
102argument
103is not an open stream.
104.El
105.Pp
106The function
107.Fn fflush
108may also fail and set
109.Va errno
110for any of the errors specified for the routine
111.Xr write 2 ,
112except that in case of
113.Fa stream
114being a read-only descriptor,
115.Fn fflush
116returns 0.
117.Sh SEE ALSO
118.Xr write 2 ,
119.Xr fclose 3 ,
120.Xr fopen 3 ,
121.Xr setbuf 3
122.Sh STANDARDS
123The
124.Fn fflush
125function
126conforms to
127.St -isoC .
128.Sh HISTORY
129The
130.Fn fflush
131function first appeared in
132.At v4 .
133The
134.Fn fpurge
135function first appeared in
136.Bx 4.4 .
137