.\" $OpenBSD: fopen.3,v 1.18 2005/07/26 03:30:25 jaredy Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by .\" Chris Torek and the American National Standards Committee X3, .\" on Information Processing Systems. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .Dd June 4, 1993 .Dt FOPEN 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm fopen , .Nm fdopen , .Nm freopen .Nd stream open functions .Sh SYNOPSIS .Fd #include .Ft FILE * .Fn fopen "const char *path" "const char *mode" .Ft FILE * .Fn fdopen "int fildes" "const char *mode" .Ft FILE * .Fn freopen "const char *path" "const char *mode" "FILE *stream" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn fopen function opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by .Fa path and associates a stream with it. .Pp The argument .Fa mode points to a string beginning with one of the following sequences (additional characters may follow these sequences): .Bl -tag -width indent .It Dq Li r Open file for reading. .It Dq Li r+ Open for reading and writing. .It Dq Li w Truncate file to zero length or create text file for writing. .It Dq Li w+ Open for reading and writing. The file is created if it does not exist, otherwise it is truncated. .It Dq Li a Open for writing. The file is created if it does not exist. .It Dq Li a+ Open for reading and writing. The file is created if it does not exist. .El .Pp The .Fa mode string can also include the letter ``b'' either as a third character or as a character between the characters in any of the two-character strings described above. This is strictly for compatibility with .St -ansiC and has no effect; the ``b'' is ignored. .Pp The .Fn fopen and .Fn freopen functions initially position the stream at the start of the file unless the file is opened in append mode, in which case the stream is initially positioned at the end of the file. .Pp Opening a file in append mode causes all subsequent writes to it to be forced to the current end-of-file, regardless of intervening repositioning of the stream. .Pp Any created files will have mode .Pf \\*q Dv S_IRUSR \&| .Dv S_IWUSR \&| .Dv S_IRGRP \&| .Dv S_IWGRP \&| .Dv S_IROTH \&| .Dv S_IWOTH Ns \\*q .Pq Li 0666 , as modified by the process' umask value (see .Xr umask 2 ) . .Pp Reads and writes cannot be arbitrarily intermixed on read/write streams. .Tn ANSI C requires that a file positioning function intervene between output and input, unless an input operation encounters end-of-file. .Pp The .Fn fdopen function associates a stream with the existing file descriptor .Fa fildes . The .Fa mode of the stream must be compatible with the mode of the file descriptor. The stream is positioned at the file offset of the file descriptor. If .Fn fdopen fails, the file descriptor .Fa fildes is not affected in any way. .Pp The .Fn freopen function opens the file whose name is the string pointed to by .Fa path and associates the stream pointed to by .Fa stream with it. The original stream (if it exists) is always closed, even if .Fn freopen fails. The .Fa mode argument is used just as in the .Fn fopen function. The primary use of the .Fn freopen function is to change the file associated with a standard text stream .Pf ( Em stderr , .Em stdin , or .Em stdout ) . .Sh RETURN VALUES Upon successful completion, .Fn fopen , .Fn fdopen , and .Fn freopen return a .Vt FILE pointer. Otherwise, .Dv NULL is returned and the global variable .Va errno is set to indicate the error. .Sh ERRORS .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EINVAL The .Fa mode provided to .Fn fopen , .Fn fdopen , or .Fn freopen was invalid. .El .Pp The .Fn fopen , .Fn fdopen and .Fn freopen functions may also fail and set .Va errno for any of the errors specified for the routine .Xr malloc 3 . .Pp The .Fn fopen function may also fail and set .Va errno for any of the errors specified for the routine .Xr open 2 . .Pp The .Fn fdopen function may also fail and set .Va errno for any of the errors specified for the routine .Xr fcntl 2 . .Pp The .Fn freopen function may also fail and set .Va errno for any of the errors specified for the routines .Xr open 2 , .Xr fclose 3 , and .Xr fflush 3 . .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr open 2 , .Xr fclose 3 , .Xr fseek 3 , .Xr funopen 3 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn fopen and .Fn freopen functions conform to .St -ansiC . The .Fn fdopen function conforms to .St -p1003.1-88 . .Sh CAVEATS Proper code using .Fn fdopen with error checking should .Xr close 2 .Fa fildes in case of failure, and .Xr fclose 3 the resulting .Vt FILE * in case of success. .Bd -literal FILE *file; int fd; if ((file = fdopen(fd, "r")) != NULL) { /* perform operations on the FILE * */ fclose(file); } else { /* failure, report the error */ close(fd); } .Ed