xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/stdio/fopen.3 (revision 10b59a9b4add0320d52c15ce057dd697261e7dfc)
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32.\"     @(#)fopen.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd October 17, 2011
36.Dt FOPEN 3
37.Os
38.Sh NAME
39.Nm fopen ,
40.Nm fdopen ,
41.Nm freopen
42.Nd stream open functions
43.Sh LIBRARY
44.Lb libc
45.Sh SYNOPSIS
46.In stdio.h
47.Ft FILE *
48.Fn fopen "const char * restrict path" "const char * restrict mode"
49.Ft FILE *
50.Fn fdopen "int fildes" "const char *mode"
51.Ft FILE *
52.Fn freopen "const char *path" "const char *mode" "FILE *stream"
53.Sh DESCRIPTION
54The
55.Fn fopen
56function
57opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by
58.Fa path
59and associates a stream with it.
60.Pp
61The argument
62.Fa mode
63points to a string beginning with one of the following letters:
64.Bl -tag -width indent
65.It Dq Li r
66Open for reading.
67The stream is positioned at the beginning of the file.
68Fail if the file does not exist.
69.It Dq Li w
70Open for writing.
71The stream is positioned at the beginning of the file.
72Create the file if it does not exist.
73.It Dq Li a
74Open for writing.
75The stream is positioned at the end of the file.
76Subsequent writes to the file will always end up at the then current
77end of file, irrespective of any intervening
78.Xr fseek 3
79or similar.
80Create the file if it does not exist.
81.El
82.Pp
83An optional
84.Dq Li +
85following
86.Dq Li r ,
87.Dq Li w ,
88or
89.Dq Li a
90opens the file for both reading and writing.
91An optional
92.Dq Li x
93following
94.Dq Li w
95or
96.Dq Li w+
97causes the
98.Fn fopen
99call to fail if the file already exists.
100.Pp
101The
102.Fa mode
103string can also include the letter
104.Dq Li b
105after either the
106.Dq Li +
107or the first letter.
108This is strictly for compatibility with
109.St -isoC
110and has no effect; the ``b'' is ignored.
111.Pp
112Any created files will have mode
113.Do Dv S_IRUSR
114\&|
115.Dv S_IWUSR
116\&|
117.Dv S_IRGRP
118\&|
119.Dv S_IWGRP
120\&|
121.Dv S_IROTH
122\&|
123.Dv S_IWOTH Dc
124.Pq Li 0666 ,
125as modified by the process'
126umask value (see
127.Xr umask 2 ) .
128.Pp
129Reads and writes may be intermixed on read/write streams in any order,
130and do not require an intermediate seek as in previous versions of
131.Em stdio .
132This is not portable to other systems, however;
133.Tn ANSI C
134requires that
135a file positioning function intervene between output and input, unless
136an input operation encounters end-of-file.
137.Pp
138The
139.Fn fdopen
140function associates a stream with the existing file descriptor,
141.Fa fildes .
142The mode
143of the stream must be compatible with the mode of the file descriptor.
144The
145.Dq Li x
146mode option is ignored.
147When the stream is closed via
148.Xr fclose 3 ,
149.Fa fildes
150is closed also.
151.Pp
152The
153.Fn freopen
154function
155opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by
156.Fa path
157and associates the stream pointed to by
158.Fa stream
159with it.
160The original stream (if it exists) is closed.
161The
162.Fa mode
163argument is used just as in the
164.Fn fopen
165function.
166.Pp
167If the
168.Fa path
169argument is
170.Dv NULL ,
171.Fn freopen
172attempts to re-open the file associated with
173.Fa stream
174with a new mode.
175The new mode must be compatible with the mode that the stream was originally
176opened with:
177Streams open for reading can only be re-opened for reading,
178streams open for writing can only be re-opened for writing,
179and streams open for reading and writing can be re-opened in any mode.
180The
181.Dq Li x
182mode option is not meaningful in this context.
183.Pp
184The primary use of the
185.Fn freopen
186function
187is to change the file associated with a
188standard text stream
189.Dv ( stderr , stdin ,
190or
191.Dv stdout ) .
192.Sh RETURN VALUES
193Upon successful completion
194.Fn fopen ,
195.Fn fdopen
196and
197.Fn freopen
198return a
199.Tn FILE
200pointer.
201Otherwise,
202.Dv NULL
203is returned and the global variable
204.Va errno
205is set to indicate the error.
206.Sh ERRORS
207.Bl -tag -width Er
208.It Bq Er EINVAL
209The
210.Fa mode
211argument
212to
213.Fn fopen ,
214.Fn fdopen ,
215or
216.Fn freopen
217was invalid.
218.El
219.Pp
220The
221.Fn fopen ,
222.Fn fdopen
223and
224.Fn freopen
225functions
226may also fail and set
227.Va errno
228for any of the errors specified for the routine
229.Xr malloc 3 .
230.Pp
231The
232.Fn fopen
233function
234may also fail and set
235.Va errno
236for any of the errors specified for the routine
237.Xr open 2 .
238.Pp
239The
240.Fn fdopen
241function
242may also fail and set
243.Va errno
244for any of the errors specified for the routine
245.Xr fcntl 2 .
246.Pp
247The
248.Fn freopen
249function
250may also fail and set
251.Va errno
252for any of the errors specified for the routines
253.Xr open 2 ,
254.Xr fclose 3
255and
256.Xr fflush 3 .
257.Sh SEE ALSO
258.Xr open 2 ,
259.Xr fclose 3 ,
260.Xr fileno 3 ,
261.Xr fseek 3 ,
262.Xr funopen 3
263.Sh STANDARDS
264The
265.Fn fopen
266and
267.Fn freopen
268functions
269conform to
270.St -isoC .
271The
272.Fn fdopen
273function
274conforms to
275.St -p1003.1-88 .
276