stdio(3S) (C Programming Language Utilities) stdio(3S)
NAME
stdio - standard buffered input/output package
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdio.h>
FILE *stdin, *stdout, *stderr;
DESCRIPTION
The functions described in the entries of sub-class 3S of this manual
constitute an efficient, user-level I/O buffering scheme. The in-
line macros getc and putc handle characters quickly. The macros
getchar and putchar, and the higher-level routines fgetc, fgets,
fprintf, fputc, fputs, fread, fscanf, fwrite, gets, getw, printf,
puts, putw, and scanf all use or act as if they use getc and putc;
they can be freely intermixed.
A file with associated buffering is called a stream [see intro(3)]
and is declared to be a pointer to a defined type FILE. fopen
creates certain descriptive data for a stream and returns a pointer
to designate the stream in all further transactions. Normally, there
are three open streams with constant pointers declared in the
<stdio.h> header file and associated with the standard open files:
stdin standard input file
stdout standard output file
stderr standard error file
The following symbolic values in <unistd.h> define the file
descriptors that will be associated with the C-language stdin, stdout
and stderr when the application is started:
STDINFILENO Standard input value, stdin. It has the value
of 0.
STDOUTFILENO Standard output value, stdout. It has the
value of 1.
STDERRFILENO Standard error value, stderr. It has the value
of 2.
A constant null designates a null pointer.
An integer-constant EOF (-1) is returned upon end-of-file or error by
most integer functions that deal with streams (see the individual
descriptions for details).
An integer constant BUFSIZ specifies the size of the buffers used by
the particular implementation.
An integer constant FILENAMEMAX specifies the size needed for an
array of char large enough to hold the longest file name string that
the implementation guarantees can be opened.
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stdio(3S) (C Programming Language Utilities) stdio(3S)
An integer constant FOPENMAX specifies the minimum number of files
that the implementation guarantees can be open simultaneously. Note
that no more than 255 files may be opened via fopen, and only file
descriptors 0 through 255 are valid.
Any program that uses this package must include the header file of
pertinent macro definitions, as follows:
#include <stdio.h>
The functions and constants mentioned in the entries of sub-class 3S
of this manual are declared in that header file and need no further
declaration. The constants and the following ``functions'' are
implemented as macros (redeclaration of these names is perilous):
getc, getchar, putc, putchar, ferror, feof, clearerr, and fileno.
There are also function versions of getc, getchar, putc, putchar,
ferror, feof, clearerr, and fileno.
Output streams, with the exception of the standard error stream
stderr, are by default buffered if the output refers to a file and
line-buffered if the output refers to a terminal. The standard error
output stream stderr is by default unbuffered, but use of freopen
[see fopen(3S)] will cause it to become buffered or line-buffered.
When an output stream is unbuffered, information is queued for
writing on the destination file or terminal as soon as written; when
it is buffered, many characters are saved up and written as a block.
When it is
line-buffered, each line of output is queued for writing on the
destination terminal as soon as the line is completed (that is, as
soon as a new-line character is written or terminal input is
requested). setbuf or setvbuf [both described in setbuf(3S)] may be
used to change the stream's buffering strategy.
SEE ALSO
open(2), close(2), lseek(2), pipe(2), read(2), write(2), ctermid(3S),
cuserid(3S), fclose(3S), ferror(3S), fopen(3S), fread(3S), fseek(3S),
getc(3S), gets(3S), popen(3S), printf(3S), putc(3S), puts(3S),
scanf(3S), setbuf(3S), system(3S), tmpfile(3S), tmpnam(3S),
ungetc(3S).
DIAGNOSTICS
Invalid stream pointers usually cause grave disorder, possibly
including program termination. Individual function descriptions
describe the possible error conditions.
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