path: root/lib/libc/stdio/fopen.3

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.Dd June 4, 1993
.Dt FOPEN 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm fopen ,
.Nm fdopen ,
.Nm freopen
.Nd stream open functions
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <stdio.h>
.Ft FILE *
.Fn fopen "char *path" "char *mode"
.Ft FILE *
.Fn fdopen "int fildes" "char *mode"
.Ft FILE *
.Fn freopen "char *path" "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 text file for reading.
The stream is positioned at the beginning of the file.
.It Dq Li r+
Open for reading and writing.
The stream is positioned at the beginning of the file.
.It Dq Li w
Truncate file to zero length or create text file for writing.
The stream is positioned at the beginning of the file.
.It Dq Li w+
Open for reading and writing.
The file is created if it does not exist, otherwise it is truncated.
The stream is positioned at the beginning of the file.
.It Dq Li a
Open for writing.
The file is created if it does not exist.
The stream is positioned at the end of the file.
.It Dq Li a+
Open for reading and writing.
The file is created if it does not exist.
The stream is positioned at the end of the file.
.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
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.
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
.Xr 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
.Tn 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 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