xref: /freebsd/lib/libc/stdio/getline.3 (revision 4c8945a06b01a5c8122cdeb402af36bb46a06acc)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2009 David Schultz <das@FreeBSD.org>
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25.\" $FreeBSD$
26.\"
27.Dd November 30, 2010
28.Dt GETLINE 3
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm getdelim ,
32.Nm getline
33.Nd get a line from a stream
34.Sh LIBRARY
35.Lb libc
36.Sh SYNOPSIS
37.Fd "#define _WITH_GETLINE"
38.In stdio.h
39.Ft ssize_t
40.Fn getdelim "char ** restrict linep" "size_t * restrict linecapp" "int delimiter" " FILE * restrict stream"
41.Ft ssize_t
42.Fn getline "char ** restrict linep" "size_t * restrict linecapp" " FILE * restrict stream"
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Fn getdelim
46function reads a line from
47.Fa stream ,
48delimited by the character
49.Fa delimiter .
50The
51.Fn getline
52function is equivalent to
53.Fn getdelim
54with the newline character as the delimiter.
55The delimiter character is included as part of the line, unless
56the end of the file is reached.
57.Pp
58The caller may provide a pointer to a malloced buffer for the line in
59.Fa *linep ,
60and the capacity of that buffer in
61.Fa *linecapp .
62These functions expand the buffer as needed, as if via
63.Fn realloc .
64If
65.Fa linep
66points to a
67.Dv NULL
68pointer, a new buffer will be allocated.
69In either case,
70.Fa *linep
71and
72.Fa *linecapp
73will be updated accordingly.
74.Sh RETURN VALUES
75The
76.Fn getdelim
77and
78.Fn getline
79functions return the number of characters written, excluding the
80terminating
81.Dv NUL
82character.
83The value \-1 is returned if an error occurs, or if end-of-file is reached.
84.Sh EXAMPLES
85The following code fragment reads lines from a file and
86writes them to standard output.
87The
88.Fn fwrite
89function is used in case the line contains embedded
90.Dv NUL
91characters.
92.Bd -literal -offset indent
93char *line = NULL;
94size_t linecap = 0;
95ssize_t linelen;
96while ((linelen = getline(&line, &linecap, fp)) > 0)
97	fwrite(line, linelen, 1, stdout);
98.Ed
99.Sh COMPATIBILITY
100Many application writers used the name
101.Va getline
102before the
103.Fn getline
104function was introduced in
105.St -p1003.1 ,
106so a prototype is not provided by default in order to avoid
107compatibility problems.
108Applications that wish to use the
109.Fn getline
110function described herein should either request a strict
111.St -p1003.1-2008
112environment by defining the macro
113.Dv _POSIX_C_SOURCE
114to the value 200809 or greater, or by defining the macro
115.Dv _WITH_GETLINE ,
116prior to the inclusion of
117.In stdio.h .
118For compatibility with GNU libc, defining either
119.Dv _BSD_SOURCE
120or
121.Dv _GNU_SOURCE
122prior to the inclusion of
123.In stdio.h
124will also make
125.Fn getline
126available.
127.Sh ERRORS
128These functions may fail if:
129.Bl -tag -width Er
130.It Bq Er EINVAL
131Either
132.Fa linep
133or
134.Fa linecapp
135is
136.Dv NULL .
137.It Bq Er EOVERFLOW
138No delimiter was found in the first
139.Dv SSIZE_MAX
140characters.
141.El
142.Pp
143These functions may also fail due to any of the errors specified for
144.Fn fgets
145and
146.Fn malloc .
147.Sh SEE ALSO
148.Xr fgetln 3 ,
149.Xr fgets 3 ,
150.Xr malloc 3
151.Sh STANDARDS
152The
153.Fn getdelim
154and
155.Fn getline
156functions conform to
157.St -p1003.1-2008 .
158.Sh HISTORY
159These routines first appeared in
160.Fx 8.0 .
161.Sh BUGS
162There are no wide character versions of
163.Fn getdelim
164or
165.Fn getline .
166