xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/stdio/fopen.3 (revision 23f282aa31e9b6fceacd449020e936e98d6f2298)
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36.\"     @(#)fopen.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
37.\" $FreeBSD$
38.\"
39.Dd June 4, 1993
40.Dt FOPEN 3
41.Os
42.Sh NAME
43.Nm fopen ,
44.Nm fdopen ,
45.Nm freopen
46.Nd stream open functions
47.Sh LIBRARY
48.Lb libc
49.Sh SYNOPSIS
50.Fd #include <stdio.h>
51.Ft FILE *
52.Fn fopen "const char *path" "const char *mode"
53.Ft FILE *
54.Fn fdopen "int fildes" "const char *mode"
55.Ft FILE *
56.Fn freopen "const char *path" "const char *mode" "FILE *stream"
57.Sh DESCRIPTION
58The
59.Fn fopen
60function
61opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by
62.Fa path
63and associates a stream with it.
64.Pp
65The argument
66.Fa mode
67points to a string beginning with one of the following
68sequences (Additional characters may follow these sequences.):
69.Bl -tag -width indent
70.It Dq Li r
71Open text file for reading.
72The stream is positioned at the beginning of the file.
73.It Dq Li r+
74Open for reading and writing.
75The stream is positioned at the beginning of the file.
76.It Dq Li w
77Truncate file to zero length or create text file for writing.
78The stream is positioned at the beginning of the file.
79.It Dq Li w+
80Open for reading and writing.
81The file is created if it does not exist, otherwise it is truncated.
82The stream is positioned at the beginning of the file.
83.It Dq Li a
84Open for writing.
85The file is created if it does not exist.
86The stream is positioned at the end of the file.
87.It Dq Li a+
88Open for reading and writing.
89The file is created if it does not exist.
90The stream is positioned at the end of the file.
91.El
92.Pp
93The
94.Fa mode
95string can also include the letter ``b'' either as a third character or
96as a character between the characters in any of the two-character strings
97described above.
98This is strictly for compatibility with
99.St -ansiC
100and has no effect; the ``b'' is ignored.
101.Pp
102Any created files will have mode
103.Pf \\*q Dv S_IRUSR
104\&|
105.Dv S_IWUSR
106\&|
107.Dv S_IRGRP
108\&|
109.Dv S_IWGRP
110\&|
111.Dv S_IROTH
112\&|
113.Dv S_IWOTH Ns \\*q
114.Pq Li 0666 ,
115as modified by the process'
116umask value (see
117.Xr umask 2 ) .
118.Pp
119Reads and writes may be intermixed on read/write streams in any order,
120and do not require an intermediate seek as in previous versions of
121.Em stdio .
122This is not portable to other systems, however;
123.Tn ANSI C
124requires that
125a file positioning function intervene between output and input, unless
126an input operation encounters end-of-file.
127.Pp
128The
129.Fn fdopen
130function associates a stream with the existing file descriptor,
131.Fa fildes .
132The
133.Fa mode
134of the stream must be compatible with the mode of the file descriptor.
135When the stream is closed via
136.Xr fclose 3 ,
137.Fa fildes
138is closed also.
139.Pp
140The
141.Fn freopen
142function
143opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by
144.Fa path
145and associates the stream pointed to by
146.Fa stream
147with it.
148The original stream (if it exists) is closed.
149The
150.Fa mode
151argument is used just as in the
152.Fn fopen
153function.
154The primary use of the
155.Fn freopen
156function
157is to change the file associated with a
158standard text stream
159.Pf ( Em stderr ,
160.Em stdin ,
161or
162.Em stdout ) .
163.Sh RETURN VALUES
164Upon successful completion
165.Fn fopen ,
166.Fn fdopen
167and
168.Fn freopen
169return a
170.Tn FILE
171pointer.
172Otherwise,
173.Dv NULL
174is returned and the global variable
175.Va errno
176is set to indicate the error.
177.Sh ERRORS
178.Bl -tag -width [EINVAL]
179.It Bq Er EINVAL
180The
181.Fa mode
182provided to
183.Fn fopen ,
184.Fn fdopen ,
185or
186.Fn freopen
187was invalid.
188.El
189.Pp
190The
191.Fn fopen ,
192.Fn fdopen
193and
194.Fn freopen
195functions
196may also fail and set
197.Va errno
198for any of the errors specified for the routine
199.Xr malloc 3 .
200.Pp
201The
202.Fn fopen
203function
204may also fail and set
205.Va errno
206for any of the errors specified for the routine
207.Xr open 2 .
208.Pp
209The
210.Fn fdopen
211function
212may also fail and set
213.Va errno
214for any of the errors specified for the routine
215.Xr fcntl 2 .
216.Pp
217The
218.Fn freopen
219function
220may also fail and set
221.Va errno
222for any of the errors specified for the routines
223.Xr open 2 ,
224.Xr fclose 3
225and
226.Xr fflush 3 .
227.Sh SEE ALSO
228.Xr open 2 ,
229.Xr fclose 3 ,
230.Xr fseek 3 ,
231.Xr funopen 3
232.Sh STANDARDS
233The
234.Fn fopen
235and
236.Fn freopen
237functions
238conform to
239.St -ansiC .
240The
241.Fn fdopen
242function
243conforms to
244.St -p1003.1-88 .
245