xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/stdio/fopen.3 (revision c6ec7d31830ab1c80edae95ad5e4b9dba10c47ac)
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32.\"     @(#)fopen.3	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
33.\" $FreeBSD$
34.\"
35.Dd November 30, 2012
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.
100An optional
101.Dq Li e
102following the above
103causes the
104.Fn fopen
105call to set the
106.Dv FD_CLOEXEC
107flag on the underlying file descriptor.
108.Pp
109The
110.Fa mode
111string can also include the letter
112.Dq Li b
113after either the
114.Dq Li +
115or the first letter.
116This is strictly for compatibility with
117.St -isoC
118and has no effect; the ``b'' is ignored.
119.Pp
120Any created files will have mode
121.Do Dv S_IRUSR
122\&|
123.Dv S_IWUSR
124\&|
125.Dv S_IRGRP
126\&|
127.Dv S_IWGRP
128\&|
129.Dv S_IROTH
130\&|
131.Dv S_IWOTH Dc
132.Pq Li 0666 ,
133as modified by the process'
134umask value (see
135.Xr umask 2 ) .
136.Pp
137Reads and writes may be intermixed on read/write streams in any order,
138and do not require an intermediate seek as in previous versions of
139.Em stdio .
140This is not portable to other systems, however;
141.Tn ANSI C
142requires that
143a file positioning function intervene between output and input, unless
144an input operation encounters end-of-file.
145.Pp
146The
147.Fn fdopen
148function associates a stream with the existing file descriptor,
149.Fa fildes .
150The mode
151of the stream must be compatible with the mode of the file descriptor.
152The
153.Dq Li x
154mode option is ignored.
155If the
156.Dq Li e
157mode option is present, the
158.Dv FD_CLOEXEC
159flag is set, otherwise it remains unchanged.
160When the stream is closed via
161.Xr fclose 3 ,
162.Fa fildes
163is closed also.
164.Pp
165The
166.Fn freopen
167function
168opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by
169.Fa path
170and associates the stream pointed to by
171.Fa stream
172with it.
173The original stream (if it exists) is closed.
174The
175.Fa mode
176argument is used just as in the
177.Fn fopen
178function.
179.Pp
180If the
181.Fa path
182argument is
183.Dv NULL ,
184.Fn freopen
185attempts to re-open the file associated with
186.Fa stream
187with a new mode.
188The new mode must be compatible with the mode that the stream was originally
189opened with:
190Streams open for reading can only be re-opened for reading,
191streams open for writing can only be re-opened for writing,
192and streams open for reading and writing can be re-opened in any mode.
193The
194.Dq Li x
195mode option is not meaningful in this context.
196.Pp
197The primary use of the
198.Fn freopen
199function
200is to change the file associated with a
201standard text stream
202.Dv ( stderr , stdin ,
203or
204.Dv stdout ) .
205.Sh RETURN VALUES
206Upon successful completion
207.Fn fopen ,
208.Fn fdopen
209and
210.Fn freopen
211return a
212.Tn FILE
213pointer.
214Otherwise,
215.Dv NULL
216is returned and the global variable
217.Va errno
218is set to indicate the error.
219.Sh ERRORS
220.Bl -tag -width Er
221.It Bq Er EINVAL
222The
223.Fa mode
224argument
225to
226.Fn fopen ,
227.Fn fdopen ,
228or
229.Fn freopen
230was invalid.
231.El
232.Pp
233The
234.Fn fopen ,
235.Fn fdopen
236and
237.Fn freopen
238functions
239may also fail and set
240.Va errno
241for any of the errors specified for the routine
242.Xr malloc 3 .
243.Pp
244The
245.Fn fopen
246function
247may also fail and set
248.Va errno
249for any of the errors specified for the routine
250.Xr open 2 .
251.Pp
252The
253.Fn fdopen
254function
255may also fail and set
256.Va errno
257for any of the errors specified for the routine
258.Xr fcntl 2 .
259.Pp
260The
261.Fn freopen
262function
263may also fail and set
264.Va errno
265for any of the errors specified for the routines
266.Xr open 2 ,
267.Xr fclose 3
268and
269.Xr fflush 3 .
270.Sh SEE ALSO
271.Xr open 2 ,
272.Xr fclose 3 ,
273.Xr fileno 3 ,
274.Xr fseek 3 ,
275.Xr funopen 3
276.Sh STANDARDS
277The
278.Fn fopen
279and
280.Fn freopen
281functions
282conform to
283.St -isoC ,
284with the exception of the
285.Dq Li x
286mode option which conforms to
287.St -isoC-2011 .
288The
289.Fn fdopen
290function
291conforms to
292.St -p1003.1-88 .
293The
294.Dq Li e
295mode option does not conform to any standard
296but is also supported by glibc.
297