FGETS(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual FGETS(3P)
PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
fgets -- get a string from a stream
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdio.h>
char *fgets(char *restrict s, int n, FILE *restrict stream);
DESCRIPTION
The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the
ISO C standard. Any conflict between the requirements described here
and the ISO C standard is unintentional. This volume of POSIX.1-2008
defers to the ISO C standard.
The fgets() function shall read bytes from stream into the array
pointed to by s, until n-1 bytes are read, or a <newline> is read and
transferred to s, or an end-of-file condition is encountered. The
string is then terminated with a null byte.
The fgets() function may mark the last data access timestamp of the
file associated with stream for update. The last data access timestamp
shall be marked for update by the first successful execution of
fgetc(), fgets(), fread(), fscanf(), getc(), getchar(), getdelim(),
getline(), gets(), or scanf() using stream that returns data not sup-
plied by a prior call to ungetc().
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, fgets() shall return s. If the stream is
at end-of-file, the end-of-file indicator for the stream shall be set
and fgets() shall return a null pointer. If a read error occurs, the
error indicator for the stream shall be set, fgets() shall return a
null pointer, and shall set errno to indicate the error.
ERRORS
Refer to fgetc().
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
Reading Input
The following example uses fgets() to read lines of input. It assumes
that the file it is reading is a text file and that lines in this text
file are no longer than 16384 (or {LINE_MAX} if it is less than 16384
on the implementation where it is running) bytes long. (Note that the
standard utilities have no line length limit if sysconf(_SC_LINE_MAX)
returns -1 without setting errno. This example assumes that
sysconf(_SC_LINE_MAX) will not fail.)
#include <limits.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#define MYLIMIT 16384
char *line;
int line_max;
if (LINE_MAX >= MYLIMIT) {
// Use maximum line size of MYLIMIT. If LINE_MAX is
// bigger than our limit, sysconf() can't report a
// smaller limit.
line_max = MYLIMIT;
} else {
long limit = sysconf(_SC_LINE_MAX);
line_max = (limit < 0 || limit > MYLIMIT) ? MYLIMIT : (int)limit;
}
// line_max + 1 leaves room for the null byte added by fgets().
line = malloc(line_max + 1);
if (line == NULL) {
// out of space
...
return error;
}
while (fgets(line, line_max + 1, fp) != NULL) {
// Verify that a full line has been read ...
// If not, report an error or prepare to treat the
// next time through the loop as a read of a
// continuation of the current line.
...
// Process line ...
...
}
free(line);
...
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
RATIONALE
None.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
Section 2.5, Standard I/O Streams, fgetc(), fopen(), fread(), fscanf(),
getc(), getchar(), getdelim(), gets(), ungetc()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008, <stdio.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri-
cal and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker-
nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2013 FGETS(3P)