xref: /freebsd/lib/libstdbuf/libstdbuf.3 (revision 8ddb146abcdf061be9f2c0db7e391697dafad85c)
1.\" Copyright (c) 2012 Jeremie Le Hen <jlh@FreeBSD.org>
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25.\" $FreeBSD$
26.\"
27.Dd April 28, 2012
28.Dt LIBSTDBUF 3
29.Os
30.Sh NAME
31.Nm libstdbuf
32.Nd preloaded library to change standard streams initial buffering
33.Sh DESCRIPTION
34The
35.Nm
36library is meant to be preloaded with the
37.Ev LD_PRELOAD
38environment variable to as to change the initial buffering
39of standard input, standard output and standard error streams.
40.Pp
41Although you may load and configure this library manually,
42an utility,
43.Xr stdbuf 1 ,
44can be used to run a command with the appropriate environment variables.
45.Sh ENVIRONMENT
46Each stream can be configured independently through the following
47environment variables (values are defined below):
48.Bl -tag -width size -offset indent
49.It Ev _STDBUF_I
50Initial buffering definition for the standard input stream
51.It Ev _STDBUF_O
52Initial buffering definition for the standard output stream
53.It Ev _STDBUF_E
54Initial buffering definition for the standard error stream
55.El
56.Pp
57Each variable may take one of the following values:
58.Bl -tag -width size -offset indent
59.It Qq 0
60unbuffered
61.It Qq L
62line buffered
63.It Qq B
64fully buffered with the default buffer size
65.It Ar size
66fully buffered with a buffer of
67.Ar size
68bytes (suffixes 'k', 'M' and 'G' are accepted)
69.El
70.Sh EXAMPLE
71In the following example, the stdout stream of the
72.Xr awk 1
73command
74will be fully buffered by default because it does not refer
75to a terminal.
76.Nm
77is used to force it to be line-buffered so
78.Xr vmstat 8 Ns 's
79output will not stall until the full buffer fills.
80.Bd -literal -offset indent
81# vmstat 1 | LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libstdbuf.so \\
82    STDBUF_1=L awk '$2 > 1 || $3 > 1' | cat -n
83.Ed
84.Pp
85See also the manpage of
86.Xr stdbuf 1
87for a simpler way to do this.
88.Sh HISTORY
89The
90.Nm
91library first appeared in
92.Fx 8.4 .
93.Sh AUTHORS
94.An -nosplit
95The original idea of the
96.Nm
97command comes from
98.An Padraig Brady
99who implemented it in the GNU coreutils.
100.An Jeremie Le Hen
101implemented it on
102.Fx .
103