fread(3S)                                                  fread(3S)


       NAME
             fread, fwrite - binary input/output

       SYNOPSIS
             #include <stdio.h>
             size_t fread(void *ptr, size_t size, size_t nitems, FILE *stream);
             size_t fwrite(const void *ptr, size_t size, size_t nitems,
                   FILE *stream);

       DESCRIPTION
             fread reads into an array pointed to by ptr up to nitems items
             of data from stream, where an item of data is a sequence of
             bytes (not necessarily terminated by a null byte) of length
             size.  fread stops reading bytes if an end-of-file or error
             condition is encountered while reading stream, or if nitems
             items have been read.  fread increments the data pointer in
             stream to point to the byte following the last byte read if
             there is one.  fread does not change the contents of stream.
             fread returns the number of items read.

             fwrite writes to the named output stream at most nitems items
             of data from the array pointed to by ptr, where an item of
             data is a sequence of bytes (not necessarily terminated by a
             null byte) of length size.  fwrite stops writing when it has
             written nitems items of data or if an error condition is
             encountered on stream.  fwrite does not change the contents of
             the array pointed to by ptr.  fwrite increments the data-
             pointer in stream by the number of bytes written.  fwrite
             returns the number of items written.

             If size or nitems is zero, then fread and fwrite return a
             value of 0 and do not effect the state of stream.

             The ferror or feof routines must be used to distinguish
             between an error condition and end-of-file condition.

          Errors
             If an error occurs, the error indicator for stream is set.

       REFERENCES
             abort(3C), exit(2), fclose(3S), fopen(3S), fprintf(3S),
             fscanf(3S), getc(3S), gets(3S), lseek(2), putc(3S), puts(3S),
             read(2), stdio(3S), write(2)





                           Copyright 1994 Novell, Inc.               Page 1