stdio(3S) UNIX System V(C Development Set) 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) UNIX System V(C Development Set) 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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