SETBUF(3C) Standard C Library Functions SETBUF(3C)

NAME

setbuf, setvbuf - assign buffering to a stream

SYNOPSIS

#include <stdio.h>

void setbuf(FILE *stream, char *buf);


int setvbuf(FILE *stream, char *buf, int type, size_t size);

DESCRIPTION

The setbuf() function may be used after the stream pointed to by stream
(see Intro(3)) is opened but before it is read or written. It causes the
array pointed to by buf to be used instead of an automatically allocated
buffer. If buf is the null pointer, input/output will be completely
unbuffered. The constant BUFSIZ, defined in the <stdio.h> header,
indicates the size of the array pointed to by buf.


The setvbuf() function may be used after a stream is opened but before
it is read or written. The type argument determines how stream will be
buffered. Legal values for type (defined in <stdio.h>) are:

_IOFBF
Input/output to be fully buffered.


_IOLBF
Output to be line buffered; the buffer will be flushed when a
NEWLINE is written, the buffer is full, or input is requested.


_IONBF
Input/output to be completely unbuffered.


If buf is not the null pointer, the array it points to will be used for
buffering, instead of an automatically allocated buffer. The size
argument specifies the size of the buffer to be used. If input/output is
unbuffered, buf and size are ignored.


For a further discussion of buffering, see stdio(3C).

RETURN VALUES

If an illegal value for type is provided, setvbuf() returns a non-zero
value. Otherwise, it returns 0.

USAGE

A common source of error is allocating buffer space as an "automatic"
variable in a code block, and then failing to close the stream in the
same block.


When using setbuf(), buf should always be sized using BUFSIZ. If the
array pointed to by buf is larger than BUFSIZ, a portion of buf will not
be used. If buf is smaller than BUFSIZ, other memory may be unexpectedly
overwritten.


Parts of buf will be used for internal bookkeeping of the stream and,
therefore, buf will contain less than size bytes when full. It is
recommended that stdio(3C) be used to handle buffer allocation when
using setvbuf().

ATTRIBUTES

See attributes(7) for descriptions of the following attributes:


+--------------------+-----------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+--------------------+-----------------+
|Interface Stability | Standard |
+--------------------+-----------------+
|MT-Level | MT-Safe |
+--------------------+-----------------+

SEE ALSO

fopen(3C), getc(3C), malloc(3C), putc(3C), stdio(3C), attributes(7),
standards(7)

August 14, 2002 SETBUF(3C)