xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/stdio/fopen.3 (revision 6e8394b8baa7d5d9153ab90de6824bcd19b3b4e1)
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36.\"     @(#)fopen.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
37.\"
38.Dd June 4, 1993
39.Dt FOPEN 3
40.Os
41.Sh NAME
42.Nm fopen ,
43.Nm fdopen ,
44.Nm freopen
45.Nd stream open functions
46.Sh SYNOPSIS
47.Fd #include <stdio.h>
48.Ft FILE *
49.Fn fopen "const char *path" "const char *mode"
50.Ft FILE *
51.Fn fdopen "int fildes" "const char *mode"
52.Ft FILE *
53.Fn freopen "const char *path" "const char *mode" "FILE *stream"
54.Sh DESCRIPTION
55The
56.Fn fopen
57function
58opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by
59.Fa path
60and associates a stream with it.
61.Pp
62The argument
63.Fa mode
64points to a string beginning with one of the following
65sequences (Additional characters may follow these sequences.):
66.Bl -tag -width indent
67.It Dq Li r
68Open text file for reading.
69The stream is positioned at the beginning of the file.
70.It Dq Li r+
71Open for reading and writing.
72The stream is positioned at the beginning of the file.
73.It Dq Li w
74Truncate file to zero length or create text file for writing.
75The stream is positioned at the beginning of the file.
76.It Dq Li w+
77Open for reading and writing.
78The file is created if it does not exist, otherwise it is truncated.
79The stream is positioned at the beginning of the file.
80.It Dq Li a
81Open for writing.
82The file is created if it does not exist.
83The stream is positioned at the end of the file.
84.It Dq Li a+
85Open for reading and writing.
86The file is created if it does not exist.
87The stream is positioned at the end of the file.
88.El
89.Pp
90The
91.Fa mode
92string can also include the letter ``b'' either as a third character or
93as a character between the characters in any of the two-character strings
94described above.
95This is strictly for compatibility with
96.St -ansiC
97and has no effect; the ``b'' is ignored.
98.Pp
99Any created files will have mode
100.Pf \\*q Dv S_IRUSR
101\&|
102.Dv S_IWUSR
103\&|
104.Dv S_IRGRP
105\&|
106.Dv S_IWGRP
107\&|
108.Dv S_IROTH
109\&|
110.Dv S_IWOTH Ns \\*q
111.Pq Li 0666 ,
112as modified by the process'
113umask value (see
114.Xr umask 2 ) .
115.Pp
116Reads and writes may be intermixed on read/write streams in any order,
117and do not require an intermediate seek as in previous versions of
118.Em stdio .
119This is not portable to other systems, however;
120.Tn ANSI C
121requires that
122a file positioning function intervene between output and input, unless
123an input operation encounters end-of-file.
124.Pp
125The
126.Fn fdopen
127function associates a stream with the existing file descriptor,
128.Fa fildes .
129The
130.Fa mode
131of the stream must be compatible with the mode of the file descriptor.
132When the stream is closed via
133.Xr fclose 3 ,
134.Fa fildes
135is closed also.
136.Pp
137The
138.Fn freopen
139function
140opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by
141.Fa path
142and associates the stream pointed to by
143.Fa stream
144with it.
145The original stream (if it exists) is closed.
146The
147.Fa mode
148argument is used just as in the
149.Fn fopen
150function.
151The primary use of the
152.Fn freopen
153function
154is to change the file associated with a
155standard text stream
156.Pf ( Em stderr ,
157.Em stdin ,
158or
159.Em stdout ) .
160.Sh RETURN VALUES
161Upon successful completion
162.Fn fopen ,
163.Fn fdopen
164and
165.Fn freopen
166return a
167.Tn FILE
168pointer.
169Otherwise,
170.Dv NULL
171is returned and the global variable
172.Va errno
173is set to indicate the error.
174.Sh ERRORS
175.Bl -tag -width [EINVAL]
176.It Bq Er EINVAL
177The
178.Fa mode
179provided to
180.Fn fopen ,
181.Fn fdopen ,
182or
183.Fn freopen
184was invalid.
185.El
186.Pp
187The
188.Fn fopen ,
189.Fn fdopen
190and
191.Fn freopen
192functions
193may also fail and set
194.Va errno
195for any of the errors specified for the routine
196.Xr malloc 3 .
197.Pp
198The
199.Fn fopen
200function
201may also fail and set
202.Va errno
203for any of the errors specified for the routine
204.Xr open 2 .
205.Pp
206The
207.Fn fdopen
208function
209may also fail and set
210.Va errno
211for any of the errors specified for the routine
212.Xr fcntl 2 .
213.Pp
214The
215.Fn freopen
216function
217may also fail and set
218.Va errno
219for any of the errors specified for the routines
220.Xr open 2 ,
221.Xr fclose 3
222and
223.Xr fflush 3 .
224.Sh SEE ALSO
225.Xr open 2 ,
226.Xr fclose 3 ,
227.Xr fseek 3 ,
228.Xr funopen 3
229.Sh STANDARDS
230The
231.Fn fopen
232and
233.Fn freopen
234functions
235conform to
236.St -ansiC .
237The
238.Fn fdopen
239function
240conforms to
241.St -p1003.1-88 .
242