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gfiber / toolchains / mindspeed / f6153d9b5022adf0575515eaebc05c2a3b08c688 / . / arm-buildroot-linux-gnueabi / sysroot / usr / share / info / libc.info-3
blob: 5ef654244aa307f89dc63902a8fa3aed195cb016 [file] [log] [blame]
This is
/usr/local/google/home/jnewlin/src/uclibc/buildroot/output/build/glibc-2.19/build/manual/libc.info,
produced by makeinfo version 4.13 from libc.texinfo.
INFO-DIR-SECTION Software libraries
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* Libc: (libc). C library.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
INFO-DIR-SECTION GNU C library functions and macros
START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
* ALTWERASE: (libc)Local Modes.
* ARGP_ERR_UNKNOWN: (libc)Argp Parser Functions.
* ARG_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* BC_BASE_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* BC_DIM_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* BC_SCALE_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* BC_STRING_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* BRKINT: (libc)Input Modes.
* BUFSIZ: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* CCTS_OFLOW: (libc)Control Modes.
* CHILD_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* CIGNORE: (libc)Control Modes.
* CLK_TCK: (libc)Processor Time.
* CLOCAL: (libc)Control Modes.
* CLOCKS_PER_SEC: (libc)CPU Time.
* COLL_WEIGHTS_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* CPU_CLR: (libc)CPU Affinity.
* CPU_ISSET: (libc)CPU Affinity.
* CPU_SET: (libc)CPU Affinity.
* CPU_SETSIZE: (libc)CPU Affinity.
* CPU_ZERO: (libc)CPU Affinity.
* CREAD: (libc)Control Modes.
* CRTS_IFLOW: (libc)Control Modes.
* CS5: (libc)Control Modes.
* CS6: (libc)Control Modes.
* CS7: (libc)Control Modes.
* CS8: (libc)Control Modes.
* CSIZE: (libc)Control Modes.
* CSTOPB: (libc)Control Modes.
* DES_FAILED: (libc)DES Encryption.
* DTTOIF: (libc)Directory Entries.
* E2BIG: (libc)Error Codes.
* EACCES: (libc)Error Codes.
* EADDRINUSE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EADDRNOTAVAIL: (libc)Error Codes.
* EADV: (libc)Error Codes.
* EAFNOSUPPORT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EAGAIN: (libc)Error Codes.
* EALREADY: (libc)Error Codes.
* EAUTH: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBACKGROUND: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADF: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADFD: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADMSG: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADR: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADRPC: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADRQC: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBADSLT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBFONT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EBUSY: (libc)Error Codes.
* ECANCELED: (libc)Error Codes.
* ECHILD: (libc)Error Codes.
* ECHO: (libc)Local Modes.
* ECHOCTL: (libc)Local Modes.
* ECHOE: (libc)Local Modes.
* ECHOK: (libc)Local Modes.
* ECHOKE: (libc)Local Modes.
* ECHONL: (libc)Local Modes.
* ECHOPRT: (libc)Local Modes.
* ECHRNG: (libc)Error Codes.
* ECOMM: (libc)Error Codes.
* ECONNABORTED: (libc)Error Codes.
* ECONNREFUSED: (libc)Error Codes.
* ECONNRESET: (libc)Error Codes.
* ED: (libc)Error Codes.
* EDEADLK: (libc)Error Codes.
* EDEADLOCK: (libc)Error Codes.
* EDESTADDRREQ: (libc)Error Codes.
* EDIED: (libc)Error Codes.
* EDOM: (libc)Error Codes.
* EDOTDOT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EDQUOT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EEXIST: (libc)Error Codes.
* EFAULT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EFBIG: (libc)Error Codes.
* EFTYPE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EGRATUITOUS: (libc)Error Codes.
* EGREGIOUS: (libc)Error Codes.
* EHOSTDOWN: (libc)Error Codes.
* EHOSTUNREACH: (libc)Error Codes.
* EHWPOISON: (libc)Error Codes.
* EIDRM: (libc)Error Codes.
* EIEIO: (libc)Error Codes.
* EILSEQ: (libc)Error Codes.
* EINPROGRESS: (libc)Error Codes.
* EINTR: (libc)Error Codes.
* EINVAL: (libc)Error Codes.
* EIO: (libc)Error Codes.
* EISCONN: (libc)Error Codes.
* EISDIR: (libc)Error Codes.
* EISNAM: (libc)Error Codes.
* EKEYEXPIRED: (libc)Error Codes.
* EKEYREJECTED: (libc)Error Codes.
* EKEYREVOKED: (libc)Error Codes.
* EL2HLT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EL2NSYNC: (libc)Error Codes.
* EL3HLT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EL3RST: (libc)Error Codes.
* ELIBACC: (libc)Error Codes.
* ELIBBAD: (libc)Error Codes.
* ELIBEXEC: (libc)Error Codes.
* ELIBMAX: (libc)Error Codes.
* ELIBSCN: (libc)Error Codes.
* ELNRNG: (libc)Error Codes.
* ELOOP: (libc)Error Codes.
* EMEDIUMTYPE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EMFILE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EMLINK: (libc)Error Codes.
* EMSGSIZE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EMULTIHOP: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENAMETOOLONG: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENAVAIL: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENEEDAUTH: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENETDOWN: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENETRESET: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENETUNREACH: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENFILE: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOANO: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOBUFS: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOCSI: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENODATA: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENODEV: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOENT: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOEXEC: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOKEY: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOLCK: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOLINK: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOMEDIUM: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOMEM: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOMSG: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENONET: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOPKG: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOPROTOOPT: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOSPC: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOSR: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOSTR: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOSYS: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTBLK: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTCONN: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTDIR: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTEMPTY: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTNAM: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTRECOVERABLE: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTSOCK: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTSUP: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTTY: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENOTUNIQ: (libc)Error Codes.
* ENXIO: (libc)Error Codes.
* EOF: (libc)EOF and Errors.
* EOPNOTSUPP: (libc)Error Codes.
* EOVERFLOW: (libc)Error Codes.
* EOWNERDEAD: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPERM: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPFNOSUPPORT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPIPE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPROCLIM: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPROCUNAVAIL: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPROGMISMATCH: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPROGUNAVAIL: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPROTO: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPROTONOSUPPORT: (libc)Error Codes.
* EPROTOTYPE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EQUIV_CLASS_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* ERANGE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EREMCHG: (libc)Error Codes.
* EREMOTE: (libc)Error Codes.
* EREMOTEIO: (libc)Error Codes.
* ERESTART: (libc)Error Codes.
* ERFKILL: (libc)Error Codes.
* EROFS: (libc)Error Codes.
* ERPCMISMATCH: (libc)Error Codes.
* ESHUTDOWN: (libc)Error Codes.
* ESOCKTNOSUPPORT: (libc)Error Codes.
* ESPIPE: (libc)Error Codes.
* ESRCH: (libc)Error Codes.
* ESRMNT: (libc)Error Codes.
* ESTALE: (libc)Error Codes.
* ESTRPIPE: (libc)Error Codes.
* ETIME: (libc)Error Codes.
* ETIMEDOUT: (libc)Error Codes.
* ETOOMANYREFS: (libc)Error Codes.
* ETXTBSY: (libc)Error Codes.
* EUCLEAN: (libc)Error Codes.
* EUNATCH: (libc)Error Codes.
* EUSERS: (libc)Error Codes.
* EWOULDBLOCK: (libc)Error Codes.
* EXDEV: (libc)Error Codes.
* EXFULL: (libc)Error Codes.
* EXIT_FAILURE: (libc)Exit Status.
* EXIT_SUCCESS: (libc)Exit Status.
* EXPR_NEST_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* FD_CLOEXEC: (libc)Descriptor Flags.
* FD_CLR: (libc)Waiting for I/O.
* FD_ISSET: (libc)Waiting for I/O.
* FD_SET: (libc)Waiting for I/O.
* FD_SETSIZE: (libc)Waiting for I/O.
* FD_ZERO: (libc)Waiting for I/O.
* FILENAME_MAX: (libc)Limits for Files.
* FLUSHO: (libc)Local Modes.
* FOPEN_MAX: (libc)Opening Streams.
* FP_ILOGB0: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* FP_ILOGBNAN: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* F_DUPFD: (libc)Duplicating Descriptors.
* F_GETFD: (libc)Descriptor Flags.
* F_GETFL: (libc)Getting File Status Flags.
* F_GETLK: (libc)File Locks.
* F_GETOWN: (libc)Interrupt Input.
* F_OK: (libc)Testing File Access.
* F_SETFD: (libc)Descriptor Flags.
* F_SETFL: (libc)Getting File Status Flags.
* F_SETLK: (libc)File Locks.
* F_SETLKW: (libc)File Locks.
* F_SETOWN: (libc)Interrupt Input.
* HUGE_VAL: (libc)Math Error Reporting.
* HUGE_VALF: (libc)Math Error Reporting.
* HUGE_VALL: (libc)Math Error Reporting.
* HUPCL: (libc)Control Modes.
* I: (libc)Complex Numbers.
* ICANON: (libc)Local Modes.
* ICRNL: (libc)Input Modes.
* IEXTEN: (libc)Local Modes.
* IFNAMSIZ: (libc)Interface Naming.
* IFTODT: (libc)Directory Entries.
* IGNBRK: (libc)Input Modes.
* IGNCR: (libc)Input Modes.
* IGNPAR: (libc)Input Modes.
* IMAXBEL: (libc)Input Modes.
* INADDR_ANY: (libc)Host Address Data Type.
* INADDR_BROADCAST: (libc)Host Address Data Type.
* INADDR_LOOPBACK: (libc)Host Address Data Type.
* INADDR_NONE: (libc)Host Address Data Type.
* INFINITY: (libc)Infinity and NaN.
* INLCR: (libc)Input Modes.
* INPCK: (libc)Input Modes.
* IPPORT_RESERVED: (libc)Ports.
* IPPORT_USERRESERVED: (libc)Ports.
* ISIG: (libc)Local Modes.
* ISTRIP: (libc)Input Modes.
* IXANY: (libc)Input Modes.
* IXOFF: (libc)Input Modes.
* IXON: (libc)Input Modes.
* LINE_MAX: (libc)Utility Limits.
* LINK_MAX: (libc)Limits for Files.
* L_ctermid: (libc)Identifying the Terminal.
* L_cuserid: (libc)Who Logged In.
* L_tmpnam: (libc)Temporary Files.
* MAXNAMLEN: (libc)Limits for Files.
* MAXSYMLINKS: (libc)Symbolic Links.
* MAX_CANON: (libc)Limits for Files.
* MAX_INPUT: (libc)Limits for Files.
* MB_CUR_MAX: (libc)Selecting the Conversion.
* MB_LEN_MAX: (libc)Selecting the Conversion.
* MDMBUF: (libc)Control Modes.
* MSG_DONTROUTE: (libc)Socket Data Options.
* MSG_OOB: (libc)Socket Data Options.
* MSG_PEEK: (libc)Socket Data Options.
* NAME_MAX: (libc)Limits for Files.
* NAN: (libc)Infinity and NaN.
* NCCS: (libc)Mode Data Types.
* NGROUPS_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* NOFLSH: (libc)Local Modes.
* NOKERNINFO: (libc)Local Modes.
* NSIG: (libc)Standard Signals.
* NULL: (libc)Null Pointer Constant.
* ONLCR: (libc)Output Modes.
* ONOEOT: (libc)Output Modes.
* OPEN_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* OPOST: (libc)Output Modes.
* OXTABS: (libc)Output Modes.
* O_ACCMODE: (libc)Access Modes.
* O_APPEND: (libc)Operating Modes.
* O_ASYNC: (libc)Operating Modes.
* O_CREAT: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_EXCL: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_EXEC: (libc)Access Modes.
* O_EXLOCK: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_FSYNC: (libc)Operating Modes.
* O_IGNORE_CTTY: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_NDELAY: (libc)Operating Modes.
* O_NOATIME: (libc)Operating Modes.
* O_NOCTTY: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_NOLINK: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_NONBLOCK: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_NONBLOCK: (libc)Operating Modes.
* O_NOTRANS: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_RDONLY: (libc)Access Modes.
* O_RDWR: (libc)Access Modes.
* O_READ: (libc)Access Modes.
* O_SHLOCK: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_SYNC: (libc)Operating Modes.
* O_TRUNC: (libc)Open-time Flags.
* O_WRITE: (libc)Access Modes.
* O_WRONLY: (libc)Access Modes.
* PARENB: (libc)Control Modes.
* PARMRK: (libc)Input Modes.
* PARODD: (libc)Control Modes.
* PATH_MAX: (libc)Limits for Files.
* PA_FLAG_MASK: (libc)Parsing a Template String.
* PENDIN: (libc)Local Modes.
* PF_FILE: (libc)Local Namespace Details.
* PF_INET6: (libc)Internet Namespace.
* PF_INET: (libc)Internet Namespace.
* PF_LOCAL: (libc)Local Namespace Details.
* PF_UNIX: (libc)Local Namespace Details.
* PIPE_BUF: (libc)Limits for Files.
* P_tmpdir: (libc)Temporary Files.
* RAND_MAX: (libc)ISO Random.
* RE_DUP_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* RLIM_INFINITY: (libc)Limits on Resources.
* R_OK: (libc)Testing File Access.
* SA_NOCLDSTOP: (libc)Flags for Sigaction.
* SA_ONSTACK: (libc)Flags for Sigaction.
* SA_RESTART: (libc)Flags for Sigaction.
* SEEK_CUR: (libc)File Positioning.
* SEEK_END: (libc)File Positioning.
* SEEK_SET: (libc)File Positioning.
* SIGABRT: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGALRM: (libc)Alarm Signals.
* SIGBUS: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGCHLD: (libc)Job Control Signals.
* SIGCLD: (libc)Job Control Signals.
* SIGCONT: (libc)Job Control Signals.
* SIGEMT: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGFPE: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGHUP: (libc)Termination Signals.
* SIGILL: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGINFO: (libc)Miscellaneous Signals.
* SIGINT: (libc)Termination Signals.
* SIGIO: (libc)Asynchronous I/O Signals.
* SIGIOT: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGKILL: (libc)Termination Signals.
* SIGLOST: (libc)Operation Error Signals.
* SIGPIPE: (libc)Operation Error Signals.
* SIGPOLL: (libc)Asynchronous I/O Signals.
* SIGPROF: (libc)Alarm Signals.
* SIGQUIT: (libc)Termination Signals.
* SIGSEGV: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGSTOP: (libc)Job Control Signals.
* SIGSYS: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGTERM: (libc)Termination Signals.
* SIGTRAP: (libc)Program Error Signals.
* SIGTSTP: (libc)Job Control Signals.
* SIGTTIN: (libc)Job Control Signals.
* SIGTTOU: (libc)Job Control Signals.
* SIGURG: (libc)Asynchronous I/O Signals.
* SIGUSR1: (libc)Miscellaneous Signals.
* SIGUSR2: (libc)Miscellaneous Signals.
* SIGVTALRM: (libc)Alarm Signals.
* SIGWINCH: (libc)Miscellaneous Signals.
* SIGXCPU: (libc)Operation Error Signals.
* SIGXFSZ: (libc)Operation Error Signals.
* SIG_ERR: (libc)Basic Signal Handling.
* SOCK_DGRAM: (libc)Communication Styles.
* SOCK_RAW: (libc)Communication Styles.
* SOCK_RDM: (libc)Communication Styles.
* SOCK_SEQPACKET: (libc)Communication Styles.
* SOCK_STREAM: (libc)Communication Styles.
* SOL_SOCKET: (libc)Socket-Level Options.
* SSIZE_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* STREAM_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* SUN_LEN: (libc)Local Namespace Details.
* SV_INTERRUPT: (libc)BSD Handler.
* SV_ONSTACK: (libc)BSD Handler.
* SV_RESETHAND: (libc)BSD Handler.
* S_IFMT: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_ISBLK: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_ISCHR: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_ISDIR: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_ISFIFO: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_ISLNK: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_ISREG: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_ISSOCK: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_TYPEISMQ: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_TYPEISSEM: (libc)Testing File Type.
* S_TYPEISSHM: (libc)Testing File Type.
* TMP_MAX: (libc)Temporary Files.
* TOSTOP: (libc)Local Modes.
* TZNAME_MAX: (libc)General Limits.
* VDISCARD: (libc)Other Special.
* VDSUSP: (libc)Signal Characters.
* VEOF: (libc)Editing Characters.
* VEOL2: (libc)Editing Characters.
* VEOL: (libc)Editing Characters.
* VERASE: (libc)Editing Characters.
* VINTR: (libc)Signal Characters.
* VKILL: (libc)Editing Characters.
* VLNEXT: (libc)Other Special.
* VMIN: (libc)Noncanonical Input.
* VQUIT: (libc)Signal Characters.
* VREPRINT: (libc)Editing Characters.
* VSTART: (libc)Start/Stop Characters.
* VSTATUS: (libc)Other Special.
* VSTOP: (libc)Start/Stop Characters.
* VSUSP: (libc)Signal Characters.
* VTIME: (libc)Noncanonical Input.
* VWERASE: (libc)Editing Characters.
* WCHAR_MAX: (libc)Extended Char Intro.
* WCHAR_MIN: (libc)Extended Char Intro.
* WCOREDUMP: (libc)Process Completion Status.
* WEOF: (libc)EOF and Errors.
* WEOF: (libc)Extended Char Intro.
* WEXITSTATUS: (libc)Process Completion Status.
* WIFEXITED: (libc)Process Completion Status.
* WIFSIGNALED: (libc)Process Completion Status.
* WIFSTOPPED: (libc)Process Completion Status.
* WSTOPSIG: (libc)Process Completion Status.
* WTERMSIG: (libc)Process Completion Status.
* W_OK: (libc)Testing File Access.
* X_OK: (libc)Testing File Access.
* _Complex_I: (libc)Complex Numbers.
* _Exit: (libc)Termination Internals.
* _IOFBF: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* _IOLBF: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* _IONBF: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* _Imaginary_I: (libc)Complex Numbers.
* _PATH_UTMP: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* _PATH_WTMP: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* _POSIX2_C_DEV: (libc)System Options.
* _POSIX2_C_VERSION: (libc)Version Supported.
* _POSIX2_FORT_DEV: (libc)System Options.
* _POSIX2_FORT_RUN: (libc)System Options.
* _POSIX2_LOCALEDEF: (libc)System Options.
* _POSIX2_SW_DEV: (libc)System Options.
* _POSIX_CHOWN_RESTRICTED: (libc)Options for Files.
* _POSIX_JOB_CONTROL: (libc)System Options.
* _POSIX_NO_TRUNC: (libc)Options for Files.
* _POSIX_SAVED_IDS: (libc)System Options.
* _POSIX_VDISABLE: (libc)Options for Files.
* _POSIX_VERSION: (libc)Version Supported.
* __fbufsize: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* __flbf: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* __fpending: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* __fpurge: (libc)Flushing Buffers.
* __freadable: (libc)Opening Streams.
* __freading: (libc)Opening Streams.
* __fsetlocking: (libc)Streams and Threads.
* __fwritable: (libc)Opening Streams.
* __fwriting: (libc)Opening Streams.
* __gconv_end_fct: (libc)glibc iconv Implementation.
* __gconv_fct: (libc)glibc iconv Implementation.
* __gconv_init_fct: (libc)glibc iconv Implementation.
* __ppc_get_timebase: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_get_timebase_freq: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_mdoio: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_mdoom: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_set_ppr_low: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_set_ppr_med: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_set_ppr_med_low: (libc)PowerPC.
* __ppc_yield: (libc)PowerPC.
* __va_copy: (libc)Argument Macros.
* _exit: (libc)Termination Internals.
* _flushlbf: (libc)Flushing Buffers.
* _tolower: (libc)Case Conversion.
* _toupper: (libc)Case Conversion.
* a64l: (libc)Encode Binary Data.
* abort: (libc)Aborting a Program.
* abs: (libc)Absolute Value.
* accept: (libc)Accepting Connections.
* access: (libc)Testing File Access.
* acos: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* acosf: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* acosh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* acoshf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* acoshl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* acosl: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* addmntent: (libc)mtab.
* addseverity: (libc)Adding Severity Classes.
* adjtime: (libc)High-Resolution Calendar.
* adjtimex: (libc)High-Resolution Calendar.
* aio_cancel64: (libc)Cancel AIO Operations.
* aio_cancel: (libc)Cancel AIO Operations.
* aio_error64: (libc)Status of AIO Operations.
* aio_error: (libc)Status of AIO Operations.
* aio_fsync64: (libc)Synchronizing AIO Operations.
* aio_fsync: (libc)Synchronizing AIO Operations.
* aio_init: (libc)Configuration of AIO.
* aio_read64: (libc)Asynchronous Reads/Writes.
* aio_read: (libc)Asynchronous Reads/Writes.
* aio_return64: (libc)Status of AIO Operations.
* aio_return: (libc)Status of AIO Operations.
* aio_suspend64: (libc)Synchronizing AIO Operations.
* aio_suspend: (libc)Synchronizing AIO Operations.
* aio_write64: (libc)Asynchronous Reads/Writes.
* aio_write: (libc)Asynchronous Reads/Writes.
* alarm: (libc)Setting an Alarm.
* aligned_alloc: (libc)Aligned Memory Blocks.
* alloca: (libc)Variable Size Automatic.
* alphasort64: (libc)Scanning Directory Content.
* alphasort: (libc)Scanning Directory Content.
* argp_error: (libc)Argp Helper Functions.
* argp_failure: (libc)Argp Helper Functions.
* argp_help: (libc)Argp Help.
* argp_parse: (libc)Argp.
* argp_state_help: (libc)Argp Helper Functions.
* argp_usage: (libc)Argp Helper Functions.
* argz_add: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_add_sep: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_append: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_count: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_create: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_create_sep: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_delete: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_extract: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_insert: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_next: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_replace: (libc)Argz Functions.
* argz_stringify: (libc)Argz Functions.
* asctime: (libc)Formatting Calendar Time.
* asctime_r: (libc)Formatting Calendar Time.
* asin: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* asinf: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* asinh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* asinhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* asinhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* asinl: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* asprintf: (libc)Dynamic Output.
* assert: (libc)Consistency Checking.
* assert_perror: (libc)Consistency Checking.
* atan2: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* atan2f: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* atan2l: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* atan: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* atanf: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* atanh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* atanhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* atanhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* atanl: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* atexit: (libc)Cleanups on Exit.
* atof: (libc)Parsing of Floats.
* atoi: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* atol: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* atoll: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* backtrace: (libc)Backtraces.
* backtrace_symbols: (libc)Backtraces.
* backtrace_symbols_fd: (libc)Backtraces.
* basename: (libc)Finding Tokens in a String.
* basename: (libc)Finding Tokens in a String.
* bcmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* bcopy: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* bind: (libc)Setting Address.
* bind_textdomain_codeset: (libc)Charset conversion in gettext.
* bindtextdomain: (libc)Locating gettext catalog.
* brk: (libc)Resizing the Data Segment.
* bsearch: (libc)Array Search Function.
* btowc: (libc)Converting a Character.
* bzero: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* cabs: (libc)Absolute Value.
* cabsf: (libc)Absolute Value.
* cabsl: (libc)Absolute Value.
* cacos: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* cacosf: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* cacosh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* cacoshf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* cacoshl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* cacosl: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* calloc: (libc)Allocating Cleared Space.
* canonicalize_file_name: (libc)Symbolic Links.
* carg: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* cargf: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* cargl: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* casin: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* casinf: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* casinh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* casinhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* casinhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* casinl: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* catan: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* catanf: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* catanh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* catanhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* catanhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* catanl: (libc)Inverse Trig Functions.
* catclose: (libc)The catgets Functions.
* catgets: (libc)The catgets Functions.
* catopen: (libc)The catgets Functions.
* cbc_crypt: (libc)DES Encryption.
* cbrt: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cbrtf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cbrtl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* ccos: (libc)Trig Functions.
* ccosf: (libc)Trig Functions.
* ccosh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* ccoshf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* ccoshl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* ccosl: (libc)Trig Functions.
* ceil: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* ceilf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* ceill: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* cexp: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cexpf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cexpl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cfgetispeed: (libc)Line Speed.
* cfgetospeed: (libc)Line Speed.
* cfmakeraw: (libc)Noncanonical Input.
* cfree: (libc)Freeing after Malloc.
* cfsetispeed: (libc)Line Speed.
* cfsetospeed: (libc)Line Speed.
* cfsetspeed: (libc)Line Speed.
* chdir: (libc)Working Directory.
* chmod: (libc)Setting Permissions.
* chown: (libc)File Owner.
* cimag: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* cimagf: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* cimagl: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* clearenv: (libc)Environment Access.
* clearerr: (libc)Error Recovery.
* clearerr_unlocked: (libc)Error Recovery.
* clock: (libc)CPU Time.
* clog10: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* clog10f: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* clog10l: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* clog: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* clogf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* clogl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* close: (libc)Opening and Closing Files.
* closedir: (libc)Reading/Closing Directory.
* closelog: (libc)closelog.
* confstr: (libc)String Parameters.
* conj: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* conjf: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* conjl: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* connect: (libc)Connecting.
* copysign: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* copysignf: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* copysignl: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* cos: (libc)Trig Functions.
* cosf: (libc)Trig Functions.
* cosh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* coshf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* coshl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* cosl: (libc)Trig Functions.
* cpow: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cpowf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cpowl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* cproj: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* cprojf: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* cprojl: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* creal: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* crealf: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* creall: (libc)Operations on Complex.
* creat64: (libc)Opening and Closing Files.
* creat: (libc)Opening and Closing Files.
* crypt: (libc)crypt.
* crypt_r: (libc)crypt.
* csin: (libc)Trig Functions.
* csinf: (libc)Trig Functions.
* csinh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* csinhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* csinhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* csinl: (libc)Trig Functions.
* csqrt: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* csqrtf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* csqrtl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* ctan: (libc)Trig Functions.
* ctanf: (libc)Trig Functions.
* ctanh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* ctanhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* ctanhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* ctanl: (libc)Trig Functions.
* ctermid: (libc)Identifying the Terminal.
* ctime: (libc)Formatting Calendar Time.
* ctime_r: (libc)Formatting Calendar Time.
* cuserid: (libc)Who Logged In.
* dcgettext: (libc)Translation with gettext.
* dcngettext: (libc)Advanced gettext functions.
* des_setparity: (libc)DES Encryption.
* dgettext: (libc)Translation with gettext.
* difftime: (libc)Elapsed Time.
* dirfd: (libc)Opening a Directory.
* dirname: (libc)Finding Tokens in a String.
* div: (libc)Integer Division.
* dngettext: (libc)Advanced gettext functions.
* drand48: (libc)SVID Random.
* drand48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* drem: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* dremf: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* dreml: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* dup2: (libc)Duplicating Descriptors.
* dup: (libc)Duplicating Descriptors.
* ecb_crypt: (libc)DES Encryption.
* ecvt: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* ecvt_r: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* encrypt: (libc)DES Encryption.
* encrypt_r: (libc)DES Encryption.
* endfsent: (libc)fstab.
* endgrent: (libc)Scanning All Groups.
* endhostent: (libc)Host Names.
* endmntent: (libc)mtab.
* endnetent: (libc)Networks Database.
* endnetgrent: (libc)Lookup Netgroup.
* endprotoent: (libc)Protocols Database.
* endpwent: (libc)Scanning All Users.
* endservent: (libc)Services Database.
* endutent: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* endutxent: (libc)XPG Functions.
* envz_add: (libc)Envz Functions.
* envz_entry: (libc)Envz Functions.
* envz_get: (libc)Envz Functions.
* envz_merge: (libc)Envz Functions.
* envz_strip: (libc)Envz Functions.
* erand48: (libc)SVID Random.
* erand48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* erf: (libc)Special Functions.
* erfc: (libc)Special Functions.
* erfcf: (libc)Special Functions.
* erfcl: (libc)Special Functions.
* erff: (libc)Special Functions.
* erfl: (libc)Special Functions.
* err: (libc)Error Messages.
* errno: (libc)Checking for Errors.
* error: (libc)Error Messages.
* error_at_line: (libc)Error Messages.
* errx: (libc)Error Messages.
* execl: (libc)Executing a File.
* execle: (libc)Executing a File.
* execlp: (libc)Executing a File.
* execv: (libc)Executing a File.
* execve: (libc)Executing a File.
* execvp: (libc)Executing a File.
* exit: (libc)Normal Termination.
* exp10: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* exp10f: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* exp10l: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* exp2: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* exp2f: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* exp2l: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* exp: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* expf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* expl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* expm1: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* expm1f: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* expm1l: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* fabs: (libc)Absolute Value.
* fabsf: (libc)Absolute Value.
* fabsl: (libc)Absolute Value.
* fchdir: (libc)Working Directory.
* fchmod: (libc)Setting Permissions.
* fchown: (libc)File Owner.
* fclose: (libc)Closing Streams.
* fcloseall: (libc)Closing Streams.
* fcntl: (libc)Control Operations.
* fcvt: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* fcvt_r: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* fdatasync: (libc)Synchronizing I/O.
* fdim: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fdimf: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fdiml: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fdopen: (libc)Descriptors and Streams.
* fdopendir: (libc)Opening a Directory.
* feclearexcept: (libc)Status bit operations.
* fedisableexcept: (libc)Control Functions.
* feenableexcept: (libc)Control Functions.
* fegetenv: (libc)Control Functions.
* fegetexcept: (libc)Control Functions.
* fegetexceptflag: (libc)Status bit operations.
* fegetround: (libc)Rounding.
* feholdexcept: (libc)Control Functions.
* feof: (libc)EOF and Errors.
* feof_unlocked: (libc)EOF and Errors.
* feraiseexcept: (libc)Status bit operations.
* ferror: (libc)EOF and Errors.
* ferror_unlocked: (libc)EOF and Errors.
* fesetenv: (libc)Control Functions.
* fesetexceptflag: (libc)Status bit operations.
* fesetround: (libc)Rounding.
* fetestexcept: (libc)Status bit operations.
* feupdateenv: (libc)Control Functions.
* fflush: (libc)Flushing Buffers.
* fflush_unlocked: (libc)Flushing Buffers.
* fgetc: (libc)Character Input.
* fgetc_unlocked: (libc)Character Input.
* fgetgrent: (libc)Scanning All Groups.
* fgetgrent_r: (libc)Scanning All Groups.
* fgetpos64: (libc)Portable Positioning.
* fgetpos: (libc)Portable Positioning.
* fgetpwent: (libc)Scanning All Users.
* fgetpwent_r: (libc)Scanning All Users.
* fgets: (libc)Line Input.
* fgets_unlocked: (libc)Line Input.
* fgetwc: (libc)Character Input.
* fgetwc_unlocked: (libc)Character Input.
* fgetws: (libc)Line Input.
* fgetws_unlocked: (libc)Line Input.
* fileno: (libc)Descriptors and Streams.
* fileno_unlocked: (libc)Descriptors and Streams.
* finite: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* finitef: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* finitel: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* flockfile: (libc)Streams and Threads.
* floor: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* floorf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* floorl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* fma: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fmaf: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fmal: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fmax: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fmaxf: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fmaxl: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fmemopen: (libc)String Streams.
* fmin: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fminf: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fminl: (libc)Misc FP Arithmetic.
* fmod: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* fmodf: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* fmodl: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* fmtmsg: (libc)Printing Formatted Messages.
* fnmatch: (libc)Wildcard Matching.
* fopen64: (libc)Opening Streams.
* fopen: (libc)Opening Streams.
* fopencookie: (libc)Streams and Cookies.
* fork: (libc)Creating a Process.
* forkpty: (libc)Pseudo-Terminal Pairs.
* fpathconf: (libc)Pathconf.
* fpclassify: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* fprintf: (libc)Formatted Output Functions.
* fputc: (libc)Simple Output.
* fputc_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* fputs: (libc)Simple Output.
* fputs_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* fputwc: (libc)Simple Output.
* fputwc_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* fputws: (libc)Simple Output.
* fputws_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* fread: (libc)Block Input/Output.
* fread_unlocked: (libc)Block Input/Output.
* free: (libc)Freeing after Malloc.
* freopen64: (libc)Opening Streams.
* freopen: (libc)Opening Streams.
* frexp: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* frexpf: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* frexpl: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* fscanf: (libc)Formatted Input Functions.
* fseek: (libc)File Positioning.
* fseeko64: (libc)File Positioning.
* fseeko: (libc)File Positioning.
* fsetpos64: (libc)Portable Positioning.
* fsetpos: (libc)Portable Positioning.
* fstat64: (libc)Reading Attributes.
* fstat: (libc)Reading Attributes.
* fsync: (libc)Synchronizing I/O.
* ftell: (libc)File Positioning.
* ftello64: (libc)File Positioning.
* ftello: (libc)File Positioning.
* ftruncate64: (libc)File Size.
* ftruncate: (libc)File Size.
* ftrylockfile: (libc)Streams and Threads.
* ftw64: (libc)Working with Directory Trees.
* ftw: (libc)Working with Directory Trees.
* funlockfile: (libc)Streams and Threads.
* futimes: (libc)File Times.
* fwide: (libc)Streams and I18N.
* fwprintf: (libc)Formatted Output Functions.
* fwrite: (libc)Block Input/Output.
* fwrite_unlocked: (libc)Block Input/Output.
* fwscanf: (libc)Formatted Input Functions.
* gamma: (libc)Special Functions.
* gammaf: (libc)Special Functions.
* gammal: (libc)Special Functions.
* gcvt: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* get_avphys_pages: (libc)Query Memory Parameters.
* get_current_dir_name: (libc)Working Directory.
* get_nprocs: (libc)Processor Resources.
* get_nprocs_conf: (libc)Processor Resources.
* get_phys_pages: (libc)Query Memory Parameters.
* getauxval: (libc)Auxiliary Vector.
* getc: (libc)Character Input.
* getc_unlocked: (libc)Character Input.
* getchar: (libc)Character Input.
* getchar_unlocked: (libc)Character Input.
* getcontext: (libc)System V contexts.
* getcwd: (libc)Working Directory.
* getdate: (libc)General Time String Parsing.
* getdate_r: (libc)General Time String Parsing.
* getdelim: (libc)Line Input.
* getdomainnname: (libc)Host Identification.
* getegid: (libc)Reading Persona.
* getenv: (libc)Environment Access.
* geteuid: (libc)Reading Persona.
* getfsent: (libc)fstab.
* getfsfile: (libc)fstab.
* getfsspec: (libc)fstab.
* getgid: (libc)Reading Persona.
* getgrent: (libc)Scanning All Groups.
* getgrent_r: (libc)Scanning All Groups.
* getgrgid: (libc)Lookup Group.
* getgrgid_r: (libc)Lookup Group.
* getgrnam: (libc)Lookup Group.
* getgrnam_r: (libc)Lookup Group.
* getgrouplist: (libc)Setting Groups.
* getgroups: (libc)Reading Persona.
* gethostbyaddr: (libc)Host Names.
* gethostbyaddr_r: (libc)Host Names.
* gethostbyname2: (libc)Host Names.
* gethostbyname2_r: (libc)Host Names.
* gethostbyname: (libc)Host Names.
* gethostbyname_r: (libc)Host Names.
* gethostent: (libc)Host Names.
* gethostid: (libc)Host Identification.
* gethostname: (libc)Host Identification.
* getitimer: (libc)Setting an Alarm.
* getline: (libc)Line Input.
* getloadavg: (libc)Processor Resources.
* getlogin: (libc)Who Logged In.
* getmntent: (libc)mtab.
* getmntent_r: (libc)mtab.
* getnetbyaddr: (libc)Networks Database.
* getnetbyname: (libc)Networks Database.
* getnetent: (libc)Networks Database.
* getnetgrent: (libc)Lookup Netgroup.
* getnetgrent_r: (libc)Lookup Netgroup.
* getopt: (libc)Using Getopt.
* getopt_long: (libc)Getopt Long Options.
* getopt_long_only: (libc)Getopt Long Options.
* getpagesize: (libc)Query Memory Parameters.
* getpass: (libc)getpass.
* getpeername: (libc)Who is Connected.
* getpgid: (libc)Process Group Functions.
* getpgrp: (libc)Process Group Functions.
* getpid: (libc)Process Identification.
* getppid: (libc)Process Identification.
* getpriority: (libc)Traditional Scheduling Functions.
* getprotobyname: (libc)Protocols Database.
* getprotobynumber: (libc)Protocols Database.
* getprotoent: (libc)Protocols Database.
* getpt: (libc)Allocation.
* getpwent: (libc)Scanning All Users.
* getpwent_r: (libc)Scanning All Users.
* getpwnam: (libc)Lookup User.
* getpwnam_r: (libc)Lookup User.
* getpwuid: (libc)Lookup User.
* getpwuid_r: (libc)Lookup User.
* getrlimit64: (libc)Limits on Resources.
* getrlimit: (libc)Limits on Resources.
* getrusage: (libc)Resource Usage.
* gets: (libc)Line Input.
* getservbyname: (libc)Services Database.
* getservbyport: (libc)Services Database.
* getservent: (libc)Services Database.
* getsid: (libc)Process Group Functions.
* getsockname: (libc)Reading Address.
* getsockopt: (libc)Socket Option Functions.
* getsubopt: (libc)Suboptions.
* gettext: (libc)Translation with gettext.
* gettimeofday: (libc)High-Resolution Calendar.
* getuid: (libc)Reading Persona.
* getumask: (libc)Setting Permissions.
* getutent: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* getutent_r: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* getutid: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* getutid_r: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* getutline: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* getutline_r: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* getutmp: (libc)XPG Functions.
* getutmpx: (libc)XPG Functions.
* getutxent: (libc)XPG Functions.
* getutxid: (libc)XPG Functions.
* getutxline: (libc)XPG Functions.
* getw: (libc)Character Input.
* getwc: (libc)Character Input.
* getwc_unlocked: (libc)Character Input.
* getwchar: (libc)Character Input.
* getwchar_unlocked: (libc)Character Input.
* getwd: (libc)Working Directory.
* glob64: (libc)Calling Glob.
* glob: (libc)Calling Glob.
* globfree64: (libc)More Flags for Globbing.
* globfree: (libc)More Flags for Globbing.
* gmtime: (libc)Broken-down Time.
* gmtime_r: (libc)Broken-down Time.
* grantpt: (libc)Allocation.
* gsignal: (libc)Signaling Yourself.
* gtty: (libc)BSD Terminal Modes.
* hasmntopt: (libc)mtab.
* hcreate: (libc)Hash Search Function.
* hcreate_r: (libc)Hash Search Function.
* hdestroy: (libc)Hash Search Function.
* hdestroy_r: (libc)Hash Search Function.
* hsearch: (libc)Hash Search Function.
* hsearch_r: (libc)Hash Search Function.
* htonl: (libc)Byte Order.
* htons: (libc)Byte Order.
* hypot: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* hypotf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* hypotl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* iconv: (libc)Generic Conversion Interface.
* iconv_close: (libc)Generic Conversion Interface.
* iconv_open: (libc)Generic Conversion Interface.
* if_freenameindex: (libc)Interface Naming.
* if_indextoname: (libc)Interface Naming.
* if_nameindex: (libc)Interface Naming.
* if_nametoindex: (libc)Interface Naming.
* ilogb: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* ilogbf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* ilogbl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* imaxabs: (libc)Absolute Value.
* imaxdiv: (libc)Integer Division.
* in6addr_any: (libc)Host Address Data Type.
* in6addr_loopback: (libc)Host Address Data Type.
* index: (libc)Search Functions.
* inet_addr: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_aton: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_lnaof: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_makeaddr: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_netof: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_network: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_ntoa: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_ntop: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* inet_pton: (libc)Host Address Functions.
* initgroups: (libc)Setting Groups.
* initstate: (libc)BSD Random.
* initstate_r: (libc)BSD Random.
* innetgr: (libc)Netgroup Membership.
* ioctl: (libc)IOCTLs.
* isalnum: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isalpha: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isascii: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isatty: (libc)Is It a Terminal.
* isblank: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* iscntrl: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isdigit: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isfinite: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isgraph: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isgreater: (libc)FP Comparison Functions.
* isgreaterequal: (libc)FP Comparison Functions.
* isinf: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isinff: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isinfl: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isless: (libc)FP Comparison Functions.
* islessequal: (libc)FP Comparison Functions.
* islessgreater: (libc)FP Comparison Functions.
* islower: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isnan: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isnan: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isnanf: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isnanl: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isnormal: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isprint: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* ispunct: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* issignaling: (libc)Floating Point Classes.
* isspace: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* isunordered: (libc)FP Comparison Functions.
* isupper: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* iswalnum: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswalpha: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswblank: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswcntrl: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswctype: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswdigit: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswgraph: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswlower: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswprint: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswpunct: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswspace: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswupper: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* iswxdigit: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* isxdigit: (libc)Classification of Characters.
* j0: (libc)Special Functions.
* j0f: (libc)Special Functions.
* j0l: (libc)Special Functions.
* j1: (libc)Special Functions.
* j1f: (libc)Special Functions.
* j1l: (libc)Special Functions.
* jn: (libc)Special Functions.
* jnf: (libc)Special Functions.
* jnl: (libc)Special Functions.
* jrand48: (libc)SVID Random.
* jrand48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* kill: (libc)Signaling Another Process.
* killpg: (libc)Signaling Another Process.
* l64a: (libc)Encode Binary Data.
* labs: (libc)Absolute Value.
* lcong48: (libc)SVID Random.
* lcong48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* ldexp: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* ldexpf: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* ldexpl: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* ldiv: (libc)Integer Division.
* lfind: (libc)Array Search Function.
* lgamma: (libc)Special Functions.
* lgamma_r: (libc)Special Functions.
* lgammaf: (libc)Special Functions.
* lgammaf_r: (libc)Special Functions.
* lgammal: (libc)Special Functions.
* lgammal_r: (libc)Special Functions.
* link: (libc)Hard Links.
* lio_listio64: (libc)Asynchronous Reads/Writes.
* lio_listio: (libc)Asynchronous Reads/Writes.
* listen: (libc)Listening.
* llabs: (libc)Absolute Value.
* lldiv: (libc)Integer Division.
* llrint: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* llrintf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* llrintl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* llround: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* llroundf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* llroundl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* localeconv: (libc)The Lame Way to Locale Data.
* localtime: (libc)Broken-down Time.
* localtime_r: (libc)Broken-down Time.
* log10: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log10f: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log10l: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log1p: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log1pf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log1pl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log2: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log2f: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log2l: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* log: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* logb: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* logbf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* logbl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* logf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* login: (libc)Logging In and Out.
* login_tty: (libc)Logging In and Out.
* logl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* logout: (libc)Logging In and Out.
* logwtmp: (libc)Logging In and Out.
* longjmp: (libc)Non-Local Details.
* lrand48: (libc)SVID Random.
* lrand48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* lrint: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* lrintf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* lrintl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* lround: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* lroundf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* lroundl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* lsearch: (libc)Array Search Function.
* lseek64: (libc)File Position Primitive.
* lseek: (libc)File Position Primitive.
* lstat64: (libc)Reading Attributes.
* lstat: (libc)Reading Attributes.
* lutimes: (libc)File Times.
* madvise: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* makecontext: (libc)System V contexts.
* mallinfo: (libc)Statistics of Malloc.
* malloc: (libc)Basic Allocation.
* mallopt: (libc)Malloc Tunable Parameters.
* mblen: (libc)Non-reentrant Character Conversion.
* mbrlen: (libc)Converting a Character.
* mbrtowc: (libc)Converting a Character.
* mbsinit: (libc)Keeping the state.
* mbsnrtowcs: (libc)Converting Strings.
* mbsrtowcs: (libc)Converting Strings.
* mbstowcs: (libc)Non-reentrant String Conversion.
* mbtowc: (libc)Non-reentrant Character Conversion.
* mcheck: (libc)Heap Consistency Checking.
* memalign: (libc)Aligned Memory Blocks.
* memccpy: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* memchr: (libc)Search Functions.
* memcmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* memcpy: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* memfrob: (libc)Trivial Encryption.
* memmem: (libc)Search Functions.
* memmove: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* mempcpy: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* memrchr: (libc)Search Functions.
* memset: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* mkdir: (libc)Creating Directories.
* mkdtemp: (libc)Temporary Files.
* mkfifo: (libc)FIFO Special Files.
* mknod: (libc)Making Special Files.
* mkstemp: (libc)Temporary Files.
* mktemp: (libc)Temporary Files.
* mktime: (libc)Broken-down Time.
* mlock: (libc)Page Lock Functions.
* mlockall: (libc)Page Lock Functions.
* mmap64: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* mmap: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* modf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* modff: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* modfl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* mount: (libc)Mount-Unmount-Remount.
* mprobe: (libc)Heap Consistency Checking.
* mrand48: (libc)SVID Random.
* mrand48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* mremap: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* msync: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* mtrace: (libc)Tracing malloc.
* munlock: (libc)Page Lock Functions.
* munlockall: (libc)Page Lock Functions.
* munmap: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* muntrace: (libc)Tracing malloc.
* nan: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nanf: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nanl: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nanosleep: (libc)Sleeping.
* nearbyint: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* nearbyintf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* nearbyintl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* nextafter: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nextafterf: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nextafterl: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nexttoward: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nexttowardf: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nexttowardl: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* nftw64: (libc)Working with Directory Trees.
* nftw: (libc)Working with Directory Trees.
* ngettext: (libc)Advanced gettext functions.
* nice: (libc)Traditional Scheduling Functions.
* nl_langinfo: (libc)The Elegant and Fast Way.
* nrand48: (libc)SVID Random.
* nrand48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* ntohl: (libc)Byte Order.
* ntohs: (libc)Byte Order.
* ntp_adjtime: (libc)High Accuracy Clock.
* ntp_gettime: (libc)High Accuracy Clock.
* obstack_1grow: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_1grow_fast: (libc)Extra Fast Growing.
* obstack_alignment_mask: (libc)Obstacks Data Alignment.
* obstack_alloc: (libc)Allocation in an Obstack.
* obstack_base: (libc)Status of an Obstack.
* obstack_blank: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_blank_fast: (libc)Extra Fast Growing.
* obstack_chunk_size: (libc)Obstack Chunks.
* obstack_copy0: (libc)Allocation in an Obstack.
* obstack_copy: (libc)Allocation in an Obstack.
* obstack_finish: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_free: (libc)Freeing Obstack Objects.
* obstack_grow0: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_grow: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_init: (libc)Preparing for Obstacks.
* obstack_int_grow: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_int_grow_fast: (libc)Extra Fast Growing.
* obstack_next_free: (libc)Status of an Obstack.
* obstack_object_size: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_object_size: (libc)Status of an Obstack.
* obstack_printf: (libc)Dynamic Output.
* obstack_ptr_grow: (libc)Growing Objects.
* obstack_ptr_grow_fast: (libc)Extra Fast Growing.
* obstack_room: (libc)Extra Fast Growing.
* obstack_vprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* offsetof: (libc)Structure Measurement.
* on_exit: (libc)Cleanups on Exit.
* open64: (libc)Opening and Closing Files.
* open: (libc)Opening and Closing Files.
* open_memstream: (libc)String Streams.
* opendir: (libc)Opening a Directory.
* openlog: (libc)openlog.
* openpty: (libc)Pseudo-Terminal Pairs.
* parse_printf_format: (libc)Parsing a Template String.
* pathconf: (libc)Pathconf.
* pause: (libc)Using Pause.
* pclose: (libc)Pipe to a Subprocess.
* perror: (libc)Error Messages.
* pipe: (libc)Creating a Pipe.
* popen: (libc)Pipe to a Subprocess.
* posix_memalign: (libc)Aligned Memory Blocks.
* pow10: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* pow10f: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* pow10l: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* pow: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* powf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* powl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* pread64: (libc)I/O Primitives.
* pread: (libc)I/O Primitives.
* printf: (libc)Formatted Output Functions.
* printf_size: (libc)Predefined Printf Handlers.
* printf_size_info: (libc)Predefined Printf Handlers.
* psignal: (libc)Signal Messages.
* pthread_getattr_default_np: (libc)Default Thread Attributes.
* pthread_getspecific: (libc)Thread-specific Data.
* pthread_key_create: (libc)Thread-specific Data.
* pthread_key_delete: (libc)Thread-specific Data.
* pthread_setattr_default_np: (libc)Default Thread Attributes.
* pthread_setspecific: (libc)Thread-specific Data.
* ptsname: (libc)Allocation.
* ptsname_r: (libc)Allocation.
* putc: (libc)Simple Output.
* putc_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* putchar: (libc)Simple Output.
* putchar_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* putenv: (libc)Environment Access.
* putpwent: (libc)Writing a User Entry.
* puts: (libc)Simple Output.
* pututline: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* pututxline: (libc)XPG Functions.
* putw: (libc)Simple Output.
* putwc: (libc)Simple Output.
* putwc_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* putwchar: (libc)Simple Output.
* putwchar_unlocked: (libc)Simple Output.
* pwrite64: (libc)I/O Primitives.
* pwrite: (libc)I/O Primitives.
* qecvt: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* qecvt_r: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* qfcvt: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* qfcvt_r: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* qgcvt: (libc)System V Number Conversion.
* qsort: (libc)Array Sort Function.
* raise: (libc)Signaling Yourself.
* rand: (libc)ISO Random.
* rand_r: (libc)ISO Random.
* random: (libc)BSD Random.
* random_r: (libc)BSD Random.
* rawmemchr: (libc)Search Functions.
* read: (libc)I/O Primitives.
* readdir64: (libc)Reading/Closing Directory.
* readdir64_r: (libc)Reading/Closing Directory.
* readdir: (libc)Reading/Closing Directory.
* readdir_r: (libc)Reading/Closing Directory.
* readlink: (libc)Symbolic Links.
* readv: (libc)Scatter-Gather.
* realloc: (libc)Changing Block Size.
* realpath: (libc)Symbolic Links.
* recv: (libc)Receiving Data.
* recvfrom: (libc)Receiving Datagrams.
* recvmsg: (libc)Receiving Datagrams.
* regcomp: (libc)POSIX Regexp Compilation.
* regerror: (libc)Regexp Cleanup.
* regexec: (libc)Matching POSIX Regexps.
* regfree: (libc)Regexp Cleanup.
* register_printf_function: (libc)Registering New Conversions.
* remainder: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* remainderf: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* remainderl: (libc)Remainder Functions.
* remove: (libc)Deleting Files.
* rename: (libc)Renaming Files.
* rewind: (libc)File Positioning.
* rewinddir: (libc)Random Access Directory.
* rindex: (libc)Search Functions.
* rint: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* rintf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* rintl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* rmdir: (libc)Deleting Files.
* round: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* roundf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* roundl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* rpmatch: (libc)Yes-or-No Questions.
* sbrk: (libc)Resizing the Data Segment.
* scalb: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalbf: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalbl: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalbln: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalblnf: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalblnl: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalbn: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalbnf: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scalbnl: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* scandir64: (libc)Scanning Directory Content.
* scandir: (libc)Scanning Directory Content.
* scanf: (libc)Formatted Input Functions.
* sched_get_priority_max: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* sched_get_priority_min: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* sched_getaffinity: (libc)CPU Affinity.
* sched_getparam: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* sched_getscheduler: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* sched_rr_get_interval: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* sched_setaffinity: (libc)CPU Affinity.
* sched_setparam: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* sched_setscheduler: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* sched_yield: (libc)Basic Scheduling Functions.
* secure_getenv: (libc)Environment Access.
* seed48: (libc)SVID Random.
* seed48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* seekdir: (libc)Random Access Directory.
* select: (libc)Waiting for I/O.
* send: (libc)Sending Data.
* sendmsg: (libc)Receiving Datagrams.
* sendto: (libc)Sending Datagrams.
* setbuf: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* setbuffer: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* setcontext: (libc)System V contexts.
* setdomainname: (libc)Host Identification.
* setegid: (libc)Setting Groups.
* setenv: (libc)Environment Access.
* seteuid: (libc)Setting User ID.
* setfsent: (libc)fstab.
* setgid: (libc)Setting Groups.
* setgrent: (libc)Scanning All Groups.
* setgroups: (libc)Setting Groups.
* sethostent: (libc)Host Names.
* sethostid: (libc)Host Identification.
* sethostname: (libc)Host Identification.
* setitimer: (libc)Setting an Alarm.
* setjmp: (libc)Non-Local Details.
* setkey: (libc)DES Encryption.
* setkey_r: (libc)DES Encryption.
* setlinebuf: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* setlocale: (libc)Setting the Locale.
* setlogmask: (libc)setlogmask.
* setmntent: (libc)mtab.
* setnetent: (libc)Networks Database.
* setnetgrent: (libc)Lookup Netgroup.
* setpgid: (libc)Process Group Functions.
* setpgrp: (libc)Process Group Functions.
* setpriority: (libc)Traditional Scheduling Functions.
* setprotoent: (libc)Protocols Database.
* setpwent: (libc)Scanning All Users.
* setregid: (libc)Setting Groups.
* setreuid: (libc)Setting User ID.
* setrlimit64: (libc)Limits on Resources.
* setrlimit: (libc)Limits on Resources.
* setservent: (libc)Services Database.
* setsid: (libc)Process Group Functions.
* setsockopt: (libc)Socket Option Functions.
* setstate: (libc)BSD Random.
* setstate_r: (libc)BSD Random.
* settimeofday: (libc)High-Resolution Calendar.
* setuid: (libc)Setting User ID.
* setutent: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* setutxent: (libc)XPG Functions.
* setvbuf: (libc)Controlling Buffering.
* shm_open: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* shm_unlink: (libc)Memory-mapped I/O.
* shutdown: (libc)Closing a Socket.
* sigaction: (libc)Advanced Signal Handling.
* sigaddset: (libc)Signal Sets.
* sigaltstack: (libc)Signal Stack.
* sigblock: (libc)Blocking in BSD.
* sigdelset: (libc)Signal Sets.
* sigemptyset: (libc)Signal Sets.
* sigfillset: (libc)Signal Sets.
* siginterrupt: (libc)BSD Handler.
* sigismember: (libc)Signal Sets.
* siglongjmp: (libc)Non-Local Exits and Signals.
* sigmask: (libc)Blocking in BSD.
* signal: (libc)Basic Signal Handling.
* signbit: (libc)FP Bit Twiddling.
* significand: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* significandf: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* significandl: (libc)Normalization Functions.
* sigpause: (libc)Blocking in BSD.
* sigpending: (libc)Checking for Pending Signals.
* sigprocmask: (libc)Process Signal Mask.
* sigsetjmp: (libc)Non-Local Exits and Signals.
* sigsetmask: (libc)Blocking in BSD.
* sigstack: (libc)Signal Stack.
* sigsuspend: (libc)Sigsuspend.
* sigvec: (libc)BSD Handler.
* sin: (libc)Trig Functions.
* sincos: (libc)Trig Functions.
* sincosf: (libc)Trig Functions.
* sincosl: (libc)Trig Functions.
* sinf: (libc)Trig Functions.
* sinh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* sinhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* sinhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* sinl: (libc)Trig Functions.
* sleep: (libc)Sleeping.
* snprintf: (libc)Formatted Output Functions.
* socket: (libc)Creating a Socket.
* socketpair: (libc)Socket Pairs.
* sprintf: (libc)Formatted Output Functions.
* sqrt: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* sqrtf: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* sqrtl: (libc)Exponents and Logarithms.
* srand48: (libc)SVID Random.
* srand48_r: (libc)SVID Random.
* srand: (libc)ISO Random.
* srandom: (libc)BSD Random.
* srandom_r: (libc)BSD Random.
* sscanf: (libc)Formatted Input Functions.
* ssignal: (libc)Basic Signal Handling.
* stat64: (libc)Reading Attributes.
* stat: (libc)Reading Attributes.
* stime: (libc)Simple Calendar Time.
* stpcpy: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* stpncpy: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* strcasecmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* strcasestr: (libc)Search Functions.
* strcat: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* strchr: (libc)Search Functions.
* strchrnul: (libc)Search Functions.
* strcmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* strcoll: (libc)Collation Functions.
* strcpy: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* strcspn: (libc)Search Functions.
* strdup: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* strdupa: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* strerror: (libc)Error Messages.
* strerror_r: (libc)Error Messages.
* strfmon: (libc)Formatting Numbers.
* strfry: (libc)strfry.
* strftime: (libc)Formatting Calendar Time.
* strlen: (libc)String Length.
* strncasecmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* strncat: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* strncmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* strncpy: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* strndup: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* strndupa: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* strnlen: (libc)String Length.
* strpbrk: (libc)Search Functions.
* strptime: (libc)Low-Level Time String Parsing.
* strrchr: (libc)Search Functions.
* strsep: (libc)Finding Tokens in a String.
* strsignal: (libc)Signal Messages.
* strspn: (libc)Search Functions.
* strstr: (libc)Search Functions.
* strtod: (libc)Parsing of Floats.
* strtof: (libc)Parsing of Floats.
* strtoimax: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strtok: (libc)Finding Tokens in a String.
* strtok_r: (libc)Finding Tokens in a String.
* strtol: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strtold: (libc)Parsing of Floats.
* strtoll: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strtoq: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strtoul: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strtoull: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strtoumax: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strtouq: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* strverscmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* strxfrm: (libc)Collation Functions.
* stty: (libc)BSD Terminal Modes.
* swapcontext: (libc)System V contexts.
* swprintf: (libc)Formatted Output Functions.
* swscanf: (libc)Formatted Input Functions.
* symlink: (libc)Symbolic Links.
* sync: (libc)Synchronizing I/O.
* syscall: (libc)System Calls.
* sysconf: (libc)Sysconf Definition.
* sysctl: (libc)System Parameters.
* syslog: (libc)syslog; vsyslog.
* system: (libc)Running a Command.
* sysv_signal: (libc)Basic Signal Handling.
* tan: (libc)Trig Functions.
* tanf: (libc)Trig Functions.
* tanh: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* tanhf: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* tanhl: (libc)Hyperbolic Functions.
* tanl: (libc)Trig Functions.
* tcdrain: (libc)Line Control.
* tcflow: (libc)Line Control.
* tcflush: (libc)Line Control.
* tcgetattr: (libc)Mode Functions.
* tcgetpgrp: (libc)Terminal Access Functions.
* tcgetsid: (libc)Terminal Access Functions.
* tcsendbreak: (libc)Line Control.
* tcsetattr: (libc)Mode Functions.
* tcsetpgrp: (libc)Terminal Access Functions.
* tdelete: (libc)Tree Search Function.
* tdestroy: (libc)Tree Search Function.
* telldir: (libc)Random Access Directory.
* tempnam: (libc)Temporary Files.
* textdomain: (libc)Locating gettext catalog.
* tfind: (libc)Tree Search Function.
* tgamma: (libc)Special Functions.
* tgammaf: (libc)Special Functions.
* tgammal: (libc)Special Functions.
* time: (libc)Simple Calendar Time.
* timegm: (libc)Broken-down Time.
* timelocal: (libc)Broken-down Time.
* times: (libc)Processor Time.
* tmpfile64: (libc)Temporary Files.
* tmpfile: (libc)Temporary Files.
* tmpnam: (libc)Temporary Files.
* tmpnam_r: (libc)Temporary Files.
* toascii: (libc)Case Conversion.
* tolower: (libc)Case Conversion.
* toupper: (libc)Case Conversion.
* towctrans: (libc)Wide Character Case Conversion.
* towlower: (libc)Wide Character Case Conversion.
* towupper: (libc)Wide Character Case Conversion.
* trunc: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* truncate64: (libc)File Size.
* truncate: (libc)File Size.
* truncf: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* truncl: (libc)Rounding Functions.
* tsearch: (libc)Tree Search Function.
* ttyname: (libc)Is It a Terminal.
* ttyname_r: (libc)Is It a Terminal.
* twalk: (libc)Tree Search Function.
* tzset: (libc)Time Zone Functions.
* ulimit: (libc)Limits on Resources.
* umask: (libc)Setting Permissions.
* umount2: (libc)Mount-Unmount-Remount.
* umount: (libc)Mount-Unmount-Remount.
* uname: (libc)Platform Type.
* ungetc: (libc)How Unread.
* ungetwc: (libc)How Unread.
* unlink: (libc)Deleting Files.
* unlockpt: (libc)Allocation.
* unsetenv: (libc)Environment Access.
* updwtmp: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* utime: (libc)File Times.
* utimes: (libc)File Times.
* utmpname: (libc)Manipulating the Database.
* utmpxname: (libc)XPG Functions.
* va_arg: (libc)Argument Macros.
* va_copy: (libc)Argument Macros.
* va_end: (libc)Argument Macros.
* va_start: (libc)Argument Macros.
* valloc: (libc)Aligned Memory Blocks.
* vasprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* verr: (libc)Error Messages.
* verrx: (libc)Error Messages.
* versionsort64: (libc)Scanning Directory Content.
* versionsort: (libc)Scanning Directory Content.
* vfork: (libc)Creating a Process.
* vfprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* vfscanf: (libc)Variable Arguments Input.
* vfwprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* vfwscanf: (libc)Variable Arguments Input.
* vlimit: (libc)Limits on Resources.
* vprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* vscanf: (libc)Variable Arguments Input.
* vsnprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* vsprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* vsscanf: (libc)Variable Arguments Input.
* vswprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* vswscanf: (libc)Variable Arguments Input.
* vsyslog: (libc)syslog; vsyslog.
* vtimes: (libc)Resource Usage.
* vwarn: (libc)Error Messages.
* vwarnx: (libc)Error Messages.
* vwprintf: (libc)Variable Arguments Output.
* vwscanf: (libc)Variable Arguments Input.
* wait3: (libc)BSD Wait Functions.
* wait4: (libc)Process Completion.
* wait: (libc)Process Completion.
* waitpid: (libc)Process Completion.
* warn: (libc)Error Messages.
* warnx: (libc)Error Messages.
* wcpcpy: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* wcpncpy: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* wcrtomb: (libc)Converting a Character.
* wcscasecmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* wcscat: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* wcschr: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcschrnul: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcscmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* wcscoll: (libc)Collation Functions.
* wcscpy: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* wcscspn: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcsdup: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* wcsftime: (libc)Formatting Calendar Time.
* wcslen: (libc)String Length.
* wcsncasecmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* wcsncat: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* wcsncmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* wcsncpy: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* wcsnlen: (libc)String Length.
* wcsnrtombs: (libc)Converting Strings.
* wcspbrk: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcsrchr: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcsrtombs: (libc)Converting Strings.
* wcsspn: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcsstr: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcstod: (libc)Parsing of Floats.
* wcstof: (libc)Parsing of Floats.
* wcstoimax: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcstok: (libc)Finding Tokens in a String.
* wcstol: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcstold: (libc)Parsing of Floats.
* wcstoll: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcstombs: (libc)Non-reentrant String Conversion.
* wcstoq: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcstoul: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcstoull: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcstoumax: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcstouq: (libc)Parsing of Integers.
* wcswcs: (libc)Search Functions.
* wcsxfrm: (libc)Collation Functions.
* wctob: (libc)Converting a Character.
* wctomb: (libc)Non-reentrant Character Conversion.
* wctrans: (libc)Wide Character Case Conversion.
* wctype: (libc)Classification of Wide Characters.
* wmemchr: (libc)Search Functions.
* wmemcmp: (libc)String/Array Comparison.
* wmemcpy: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* wmemmove: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* wmempcpy: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* wmemset: (libc)Copying and Concatenation.
* wordexp: (libc)Calling Wordexp.
* wordfree: (libc)Calling Wordexp.
* wprintf: (libc)Formatted Output Functions.
* write: (libc)I/O Primitives.
* writev: (libc)Scatter-Gather.
* wscanf: (libc)Formatted Input Functions.
* y0: (libc)Special Functions.
* y0f: (libc)Special Functions.
* y0l: (libc)Special Functions.
* y1: (libc)Special Functions.
* y1f: (libc)Special Functions.
* y1l: (libc)Special Functions.
* yn: (libc)Special Functions.
* ynf: (libc)Special Functions.
* ynl: (libc)Special Functions.
END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY
This file documents the GNU C Library.
This is `The GNU C Library Reference Manual', for version 2.19
(Buildroot).
Copyright (C) 1993-2014 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version
1.3 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation;
with the Invariant Sections being "Free Software Needs Free
Documentation" and "GNU Lesser General Public License", the Front-Cover
texts being "A GNU Manual", and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a)
below. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled "GNU
Free Documentation License".
(a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: "You have the freedom to copy and
modify this GNU manual. Buying copies from the FSF supports it in
developing GNU and promoting software freedom."

File: libc.info, Node: The catgets Functions, Next: The message catalog files, Up: Message catalogs a la X/Open
8.1.1 The `catgets' function family
-----------------------------------
-- Function: nl_catd catopen (const char *CAT_NAME, int FLAG)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `catopen' function tries to locate the message data file names
CAT_NAME and loads it when found. The return value is of an
opaque type and can be used in calls to the other functions to
refer to this loaded catalog.
The return value is `(nl_catd) -1' in case the function failed and
no catalog was loaded. The global variable ERRNO contains a code
for the error causing the failure. But even if the function call
succeeded this does not mean that all messages can be translated.
Locating the catalog file must happen in a way which lets the user
of the program influence the decision. It is up to the user to
decide about the language to use and sometimes it is useful to use
alternate catalog files. All this can be specified by the user by
setting some environment variables.
The first problem is to find out where all the message catalogs are
stored. Every program could have its own place to keep all the
different files but usually the catalog files are grouped by
languages and the catalogs for all programs are kept in the same
place.
To tell the `catopen' function where the catalog for the program
can be found the user can set the environment variable `NLSPATH' to
a value which describes her/his choice. Since this value must be
usable for different languages and locales it cannot be a simple
string. Instead it is a format string (similar to `printf''s).
An example is
/usr/share/locale/%L/%N:/usr/share/locale/%L/LC_MESSAGES/%N
First one can see that more than one directory can be specified
(with the usual syntax of separating them by colons). The next
things to observe are the format string, `%L' and `%N' in this
case. The `catopen' function knows about several of them and the
replacement for all of them is of course different.
`%N'
This format element is substituted with the name of the
catalog file. This is the value of the CAT_NAME argument
given to `catgets'.
`%L'
This format element is substituted with the name of the
currently selected locale for translating messages. How this
is determined is explained below.
`%l'
(This is the lowercase ell.) This format element is
substituted with the language element of the locale name.
The string describing the selected locale is expected to have
the form `LANG[_TERR[.CODESET]]' and this format uses the
first part LANG.
`%t'
This format element is substituted by the territory part TERR
of the name of the currently selected locale. See the
explanation of the format above.
`%c'
This format element is substituted by the codeset part
CODESET of the name of the currently selected locale. See
the explanation of the format above.
`%%'
Since `%' is used in a meta character there must be a way to
express the `%' character in the result itself. Using `%%'
does this just like it works for `printf'.
Using `NLSPATH' allows arbitrary directories to be searched for
message catalogs while still allowing different languages to be
used. If the `NLSPATH' environment variable is not set, the
default value is
PREFIX/share/locale/%L/%N:PREFIX/share/locale/%L/LC_MESSAGES/%N
where PREFIX is given to `configure' while installing the GNU C
Library (this value is in many cases `/usr' or the empty string).
The remaining problem is to decide which must be used. The value
decides about the substitution of the format elements mentioned
above. First of all the user can specify a path in the message
catalog name (i.e., the name contains a slash character). In this
situation the `NLSPATH' environment variable is not used. The
catalog must exist as specified in the program, perhaps relative
to the current working directory. This situation in not desirable
and catalogs names never should be written this way. Beside this,
this behavior is not portable to all other platforms providing the
`catgets' interface.
Otherwise the values of environment variables from the standard
environment are examined (*note Standard Environment::). Which
variables are examined is decided by the FLAG parameter of
`catopen'. If the value is `NL_CAT_LOCALE' (which is defined in
`nl_types.h') then the `catopen' function use the name of the
locale currently selected for the `LC_MESSAGES' category.
If FLAG is zero the `LANG' environment variable is examined. This
is a left-over from the early days where the concept of the locales
had not even reached the level of POSIX locales.
The environment variable and the locale name should have a value
of the form `LANG[_TERR[.CODESET]]' as explained above. If no
environment variable is set the `"C"' locale is used which
prevents any translation.
The return value of the function is in any case a valid string.
Either it is a translation from a message catalog or it is the
same as the STRING parameter. So a piece of code to decide
whether a translation actually happened must look like this:
{
char *trans = catgets (desc, set, msg, input_string);
if (trans == input_string)
{
/* Something went wrong. */
}
}
When an error occurred the global variable ERRNO is set to
EBADF
The catalog does not exist.
ENOMSG
The set/message tuple does not name an existing element in the
message catalog.
While it sometimes can be useful to test for errors programs
normally will avoid any test. If the translation is not available
it is no big problem if the original, untranslated message is
printed. Either the user understands this as well or s/he will
look for the reason why the messages are not translated.
Please note that the currently selected locale does not depend on a
call to the `setlocale' function. It is not necessary that the locale
data files for this locale exist and calling `setlocale' succeeds. The
`catopen' function directly reads the values of the environment
variables.
-- Function: char * catgets (nl_catd CATALOG_DESC, int SET, int
MESSAGE, const char *STRING)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX Safety
Concepts::.
The function `catgets' has to be used to access the massage catalog
previously opened using the `catopen' function. The CATALOG_DESC
parameter must be a value previously returned by `catopen'.
The next two parameters, SET and MESSAGE, reflect the internal
organization of the message catalog files. This will be explained
in detail below. For now it is interesting to know that a catalog
can consists of several set and the messages in each thread are
individually numbered using numbers. Neither the set number nor
the message number must be consecutive. They can be arbitrarily
chosen. But each message (unless equal to another one) must have
its own unique pair of set and message number.
Since it is not guaranteed that the message catalog for the
language selected by the user exists the last parameter STRING
helps to handle this case gracefully. If no matching string can
be found STRING is returned. This means for the programmer that
* the STRING parameters should contain reasonable text (this
also helps to understand the program seems otherwise there
would be no hint on the string which is expected to be
returned.
* all STRING arguments should be written in the same language.
It is somewhat uncomfortable to write a program using the `catgets'
functions if no supporting functionality is available. Since each
set/message number tuple must be unique the programmer must keep lists
of the messages at the same time the code is written. And the work
between several people working on the same project must be coordinated.
We will see some how these problems can be relaxed a bit (*note Common
Usage::).
-- Function: int catclose (nl_catd CATALOG_DESC)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe corrupt mem |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `catclose' function can be used to free the resources
associated with a message catalog which previously was opened by a
call to `catopen'. If the resources can be successfully freed the
function returns `0'. Otherwise it return `-1' and the global
variable ERRNO is set. Errors can occur if the catalog descriptor
CATALOG_DESC is not valid in which case ERRNO is set to `EBADF'.

File: libc.info, Node: The message catalog files, Next: The gencat program, Prev: The catgets Functions, Up: Message catalogs a la X/Open
8.1.2 Format of the message catalog files
-----------------------------------------
The only reasonable way the translate all the messages of a function and
store the result in a message catalog file which can be read by the
`catopen' function is to write all the message text to the translator
and let her/him translate them all. I.e., we must have a file with
entries which associate the set/message tuple with a specific
translation. This file format is specified in the X/Open standard and
is as follows:
* Lines containing only whitespace characters or empty lines are
ignored.
* Lines which contain as the first non-whitespace character a `$'
followed by a whitespace character are comment and are also
ignored.
* If a line contains as the first non-whitespace characters the
sequence `$set' followed by a whitespace character an additional
argument is required to follow. This argument can either be:
- a number. In this case the value of this number determines
the set to which the following messages are added.
- an identifier consisting of alphanumeric characters plus the
underscore character. In this case the set get automatically
a number assigned. This value is one added to the largest
set number which so far appeared.
How to use the symbolic names is explained in section *note
Common Usage::.
It is an error if a symbol name appears more than once. All
following messages are placed in a set with this number.
* If a line contains as the first non-whitespace characters the
sequence `$delset' followed by a whitespace character an
additional argument is required to follow. This argument can
either be:
- a number. In this case the value of this number determines
the set which will be deleted.
- an identifier consisting of alphanumeric characters plus the
underscore character. This symbolic identifier must match a
name for a set which previously was defined. It is an error
if the name is unknown.
In both cases all messages in the specified set will be removed.
They will not appear in the output. But if this set is later
again selected with a `$set' command again messages could be added
and these messages will appear in the output.
* If a line contains after leading whitespaces the sequence
`$quote', the quoting character used for this input file is
changed to the first non-whitespace character following the
`$quote'. If no non-whitespace character is present before the
line ends quoting is disable.
By default no quoting character is used. In this mode strings are
terminated with the first unescaped line break. If there is a
`$quote' sequence present newline need not be escaped. Instead a
string is terminated with the first unescaped appearance of the
quote character.
A common usage of this feature would be to set the quote character
to `"'. Then any appearance of the `"' in the strings must be
escaped using the backslash (i.e., `\"' must be written).
* Any other line must start with a number or an alphanumeric
identifier (with the underscore character included). The
following characters (starting after the first whitespace
character) will form the string which gets associated with the
currently selected set and the message number represented by the
number and identifier respectively.
If the start of the line is a number the message number is
obvious. It is an error if the same message number already
appeared for this set.
If the leading token was an identifier the message number gets
automatically assigned. The value is the current maximum messages
number for this set plus one. It is an error if the identifier was
already used for a message in this set. It is OK to reuse the
identifier for a message in another thread. How to use the
symbolic identifiers will be explained below (*note Common
Usage::). There is one limitation with the identifier: it must
not be `Set'. The reason will be explained below.
The text of the messages can contain escape characters. The usual
bunch of characters known from the ISO C language are recognized
(`\n', `\t', `\v', `\b', `\r', `\f', `\\', and `\NNN', where NNN
is the octal coding of a character code).
*Important:* The handling of identifiers instead of numbers for the
set and messages is a GNU extension. Systems strictly following the
X/Open specification do not have this feature. An example for a message
catalog file is this:
$ This is a leading comment.
$quote "
$set SetOne
1 Message with ID 1.
two " Message with ID \"two\", which gets the value 2 assigned"
$set SetTwo
$ Since the last set got the number 1 assigned this set has number 2.
4000 "The numbers can be arbitrary, they need not start at one."
This small example shows various aspects:
* Lines 1 and 9 are comments since they start with `$' followed by a
whitespace.
* The quoting character is set to `"'. Otherwise the quotes in the
message definition would have to be left away and in this case the
message with the identifier `two' would loose its leading
whitespace.
* Mixing numbered messages with message having symbolic names is no
problem and the numbering happens automatically.
While this file format is pretty easy it is not the best possible for
use in a running program. The `catopen' function would have to parser
the file and handle syntactic errors gracefully. This is not so easy
and the whole process is pretty slow. Therefore the `catgets'
functions expect the data in another more compact and ready-to-use file
format. There is a special program `gencat' which is explained in
detail in the next section.
Files in this other format are not human readable. To be easy to
use by programs it is a binary file. But the format is byte order
independent so translation files can be shared by systems of arbitrary
architecture (as long as they use the GNU C Library).
Details about the binary file format are not important to know since
these files are always created by the `gencat' program. The sources of
the GNU C Library also provide the sources for the `gencat' program and
so the interested reader can look through these source files to learn
about the file format.

File: libc.info, Node: The gencat program, Next: Common Usage, Prev: The message catalog files, Up: Message catalogs a la X/Open
8.1.3 Generate Message Catalogs files
-------------------------------------
The `gencat' program is specified in the X/Open standard and the GNU
implementation follows this specification and so processes all
correctly formed input files. Additionally some extension are
implemented which help to work in a more reasonable way with the
`catgets' functions.
The `gencat' program can be invoked in two ways:
`gencat [OPTION]... [OUTPUT-FILE [INPUT-FILE]...]`
This is the interface defined in the X/Open standard. If no
INPUT-FILE parameter is given input will be read from standard input.
Multiple input files will be read as if they are concatenated. If
OUTPUT-FILE is also missing, the output will be written to standard
output. To provide the interface one is used to from other programs a
second interface is provided.
`gencat [OPTION]... -o OUTPUT-FILE [INPUT-FILE]...`
The option `-o' is used to specify the output file and all file
arguments are used as input files.
Beside this one can use `-' or `/dev/stdin' for INPUT-FILE to denote
the standard input. Corresponding one can use `-' and `/dev/stdout'
for OUTPUT-FILE to denote standard output. Using `-' as a file name is
allowed in X/Open while using the device names is a GNU extension.
The `gencat' program works by concatenating all input files and then
*merge* the resulting collection of message sets with a possibly
existing output file. This is done by removing all messages with
set/message number tuples matching any of the generated messages from
the output file and then adding all the new messages. To regenerate a
catalog file while ignoring the old contents therefore requires to
remove the output file if it exists. If the output is written to
standard output no merging takes place.
The following table shows the options understood by the `gencat'
program. The X/Open standard does not specify any option for the
program so all of these are GNU extensions.
`-V'
`--version'
Print the version information and exit.
`-h'
`--help'
Print a usage message listing all available options, then exit
successfully.
`--new'
Do never merge the new messages from the input files with the old
content of the output files. The old content of the output file
is discarded.
`-H'
`--header=name'
This option is used to emit the symbolic names given to sets and
messages in the input files for use in the program. Details about
how to use this are given in the next section. The NAME parameter
to this option specifies the name of the output file. It will
contain a number of C preprocessor `#define's to associate a name
with a number.
Please note that the generated file only contains the symbols from
the input files. If the output is merged with the previous
content of the output file the possibly existing symbols from the
file(s) which generated the old output files are not in the
generated header file.

File: libc.info, Node: Common Usage, Prev: The gencat program, Up: Message catalogs a la X/Open
8.1.4 How to use the `catgets' interface
----------------------------------------
The `catgets' functions can be used in two different ways. By
following slavishly the X/Open specs and not relying on the extension
and by using the GNU extensions. We will take a look at the former
method first to understand the benefits of extensions.
8.1.4.1 Not using symbolic names
................................
Since the X/Open format of the message catalog files does not allow
symbol names we have to work with numbers all the time. When we start
writing a program we have to replace all appearances of translatable
strings with something like
catgets (catdesc, set, msg, "string")
CATGETS is retrieved from a call to `catopen' which is normally done
once at the program start. The `"string"' is the string we want to
translate. The problems start with the set and message numbers.
In a bigger program several programmers usually work at the same
time on the program and so coordinating the number allocation is
crucial. Though no two different strings must be indexed by the same
tuple of numbers it is highly desirable to reuse the numbers for equal
strings with equal translations (please note that there might be
strings which are equal in one language but have different translations
due to difference contexts).
The allocation process can be relaxed a bit by different set numbers
for different parts of the program. So the number of developers who
have to coordinate the allocation can be reduced. But still lists must
be keep track of the allocation and errors can easily happen. These
errors cannot be discovered by the compiler or the `catgets' functions.
Only the user of the program might see wrong messages printed. In the
worst cases the messages are so irritating that they cannot be
recognized as wrong. Think about the translations for `"true"' and
`"false"' being exchanged. This could result in a disaster.
8.1.4.2 Using symbolic names
............................
The problems mentioned in the last section derive from the fact that:
1. the numbers are allocated once and due to the possibly frequent
use of them it is difficult to change a number later.
2. the numbers do not allow to guess anything about the string and
therefore collisions can easily happen.
By constantly using symbolic names and by providing a method which
maps the string content to a symbolic name (however this will happen)
one can prevent both problems above. The cost of this is that the
programmer has to write a complete message catalog file while s/he is
writing the program itself.
This is necessary since the symbolic names must be mapped to numbers
before the program sources can be compiled. In the last section it was
described how to generate a header containing the mapping of the names.
E.g., for the example message file given in the last section we could
call the `gencat' program as follow (assume `ex.msg' contains the
sources).
gencat -H ex.h -o ex.cat ex.msg
This generates a header file with the following content:
#define SetTwoSet 0x2 /* ex.msg:8 */
#define SetOneSet 0x1 /* ex.msg:4 */
#define SetOnetwo 0x2 /* ex.msg:6 */
As can be seen the various symbols given in the source file are
mangled to generate unique identifiers and these identifiers get numbers
assigned. Reading the source file and knowing about the rules will
allow to predict the content of the header file (it is deterministic)
but this is not necessary. The `gencat' program can take care for
everything. All the programmer has to do is to put the generated header
file in the dependency list of the source files of her/his project and
to add a rules to regenerate the header of any of the input files
change.
One word about the symbol mangling. Every symbol consists of two
parts: the name of the message set plus the name of the message or the
special string `Set'. So `SetOnetwo' means this macro can be used to
access the translation with identifier `two' in the message set
`SetOne'.
The other names denote the names of the message sets. The special
string `Set' is used in the place of the message identifier.
If in the code the second string of the set `SetOne' is used the C
code should look like this:
catgets (catdesc, SetOneSet, SetOnetwo,
" Message with ID \"two\", which gets the value 2 assigned")
Writing the function this way will allow to change the message number
and even the set number without requiring any change in the C source
code. (The text of the string is normally not the same; this is only
for this example.)
8.1.4.3 How does to this allow to develop
.........................................
To illustrate the usual way to work with the symbolic version numbers
here is a little example. Assume we want to write the very complex and
famous greeting program. We start by writing the code as usual:
#include <stdio.h>
int
main (void)
{
printf ("Hello, world!\n");
return 0;
}
Now we want to internationalize the message and therefore replace the
message with whatever the user wants.
#include <nl_types.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include "msgnrs.h"
int
main (void)
{
nl_catd catdesc = catopen ("hello.cat", NL_CAT_LOCALE);
printf (catgets (catdesc, SetMainSet, SetMainHello,
"Hello, world!\n"));
catclose (catdesc);
return 0;
}
We see how the catalog object is opened and the returned descriptor
used in the other function calls. It is not really necessary to check
for failure of any of the functions since even in these situations the
functions will behave reasonable. They simply will be return a
translation.
What remains unspecified here are the constants `SetMainSet' and
`SetMainHello'. These are the symbolic names describing the message.
To get the actual definitions which match the information in the
catalog file we have to create the message catalog source file and
process it using the `gencat' program.
$ Messages for the famous greeting program.
$quote "
$set Main
Hello "Hallo, Welt!\n"
Now we can start building the program (assume the message catalog
source file is named `hello.msg' and the program source file `hello.c'):
% gencat -H msgnrs.h -o hello.cat hello.msg
% cat msgnrs.h
#define MainSet 0x1 /* hello.msg:4 */
#define MainHello 0x1 /* hello.msg:5 */
% gcc -o hello hello.c -I.
% cp hello.cat /usr/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES
% echo $LC_ALL
de
% ./hello
Hallo, Welt!
%
The call of the `gencat' program creates the missing header file
`msgnrs.h' as well as the message catalog binary. The former is used
in the compilation of `hello.c' while the later is placed in a
directory in which the `catopen' function will try to locate it.
Please check the `LC_ALL' environment variable and the default path for
`catopen' presented in the description above.

File: libc.info, Node: The Uniforum approach, Prev: Message catalogs a la X/Open, Up: Message Translation
8.2 The Uniforum approach to Message Translation
================================================
Sun Microsystems tried to standardize a different approach to message
translation in the Uniforum group. There never was a real standard
defined but still the interface was used in Sun's operating systems.
Since this approach fits better in the development process of free
software it is also used throughout the GNU project and the GNU
`gettext' package provides support for this outside the GNU C Library.
The code of the `libintl' from GNU `gettext' is the same as the code
in the GNU C Library. So the documentation in the GNU `gettext' manual
is also valid for the functionality here. The following text will
describe the library functions in detail. But the numerous helper
programs are not described in this manual. Instead people should read
the GNU `gettext' manual (*note GNU gettext utilities: (gettext)Top.).
We will only give a short overview.
Though the `catgets' functions are available by default on more
systems the `gettext' interface is at least as portable as the former.
The GNU `gettext' package can be used wherever the functions are not
available.
* Menu:
* Message catalogs with gettext:: The `gettext' family of functions.
* Helper programs for gettext:: Programs to handle message catalogs
for `gettext'.

File: libc.info, Node: Message catalogs with gettext, Next: Helper programs for gettext, Up: The Uniforum approach
8.2.1 The `gettext' family of functions
---------------------------------------
The paradigms underlying the `gettext' approach to message translations
is different from that of the `catgets' functions the basic
functionally is equivalent. There are functions of the following
categories:
* Menu:
* Translation with gettext:: What has to be done to translate a message.
* Locating gettext catalog:: How to determine which catalog to be used.
* Advanced gettext functions:: Additional functions for more complicated
situations.
* Charset conversion in gettext:: How to specify the output character set
`gettext' uses.
* GUI program problems:: How to use `gettext' in GUI programs.
* Using gettextized software:: The possibilities of the user to influence
the way `gettext' works.

File: libc.info, Node: Translation with gettext, Next: Locating gettext catalog, Up: Message catalogs with gettext
8.2.1.1 What has to be done to translate a message?
...................................................
The `gettext' functions have a very simple interface. The most basic
function just takes the string which shall be translated as the
argument and it returns the translation. This is fundamentally
different from the `catgets' approach where an extra key is necessary
and the original string is only used for the error case.
If the string which has to be translated is the only argument this of
course means the string itself is the key. I.e., the translation will
be selected based on the original string. The message catalogs must
therefore contain the original strings plus one translation for any such
string. The task of the `gettext' function is it to compare the
argument string with the available strings in the catalog and return the
appropriate translation. Of course this process is optimized so that
this process is not more expensive than an access using an atomic key
like in `catgets'.
The `gettext' approach has some advantages but also some
disadvantages. Please see the GNU `gettext' manual for a detailed
discussion of the pros and cons.
All the definitions and declarations for `gettext' can be found in
the `libintl.h' header file. On systems where these functions are not
part of the C library they can be found in a separate library named
`libintl.a' (or accordingly different for shared libraries).
-- Function: char * gettext (const char *MSGID)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `gettext' function searches the currently selected message
catalogs for a string which is equal to MSGID. If there is such a
string available it is returned. Otherwise the argument string
MSGID is returned.
Please note that although the return value is `char *' the
returned string must not be changed. This broken type results
from the history of the function and does not reflect the way the
function should be used.
Please note that above we wrote "message catalogs" (plural). This
is a specialty of the GNU implementation of these functions and we
will say more about this when we talk about the ways message
catalogs are selected (*note Locating gettext catalog::).
The `gettext' function does not modify the value of the global
ERRNO variable. This is necessary to make it possible to write
something like
printf (gettext ("Operation failed: %m\n"));
Here the ERRNO value is used in the `printf' function while
processing the `%m' format element and if the `gettext' function
would change this value (it is called before `printf' is called)
we would get a wrong message.
So there is no easy way to detect a missing message catalog beside
comparing the argument string with the result. But it is normally
the task of the user to react on missing catalogs. The program
cannot guess when a message catalog is really necessary since for
a user who speaks the language the program was developed in does
not need any translation.
The remaining two functions to access the message catalog add some
functionality to select a message catalog which is not the default one.
This is important if parts of the program are developed independently.
Every part can have its own message catalog and all of them can be used
at the same time. The C library itself is an example: internally it
uses the `gettext' functions but since it must not depend on a
currently selected default message catalog it must specify all ambiguous
information.
-- Function: char * dgettext (const char *DOMAINNAME, const char
*MSGID)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `dgettext' functions acts just like the `gettext' function.
It only takes an additional first argument DOMAINNAME which guides
the selection of the message catalogs which are searched for the
translation. If the DOMAINNAME parameter is the null pointer the
`dgettext' function is exactly equivalent to `gettext' since the
default value for the domain name is used.
As for `gettext' the return value type is `char *' which is an
anachronism. The returned string must never be modified.
-- Function: char * dcgettext (const char *DOMAINNAME, const char
*MSGID, int CATEGORY)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `dcgettext' adds another argument to those which `dgettext'
takes. This argument CATEGORY specifies the last piece of
information needed to localize the message catalog. I.e., the
domain name and the locale category exactly specify which message
catalog has to be used (relative to a given directory, see below).
The `dgettext' function can be expressed in terms of `dcgettext'
by using
dcgettext (domain, string, LC_MESSAGES)
instead of
dgettext (domain, string)
This also shows which values are expected for the third parameter.
One has to use the available selectors for the categories
available in `locale.h'. Normally the available values are
`LC_CTYPE', `LC_COLLATE', `LC_MESSAGES', `LC_MONETARY',
`LC_NUMERIC', and `LC_TIME'. Please note that `LC_ALL' must not
be used and even though the names might suggest this, there is no
relation to the environments variables of this name.
The `dcgettext' function is only implemented for compatibility with
other systems which have `gettext' functions. There is not really
any situation where it is necessary (or useful) to use a different
value but `LC_MESSAGES' in for the CATEGORY parameter. We are
dealing with messages here and any other choice can only be
irritating.
As for `gettext' the return value type is `char *' which is an
anachronism. The returned string must never be modified.
When using the three functions above in a program it is a frequent
case that the MSGID argument is a constant string. So it is worth to
optimize this case. Thinking shortly about this one will realize that
as long as no new message catalog is loaded the translation of a message
will not change. This optimization is actually implemented by the
`gettext', `dgettext' and `dcgettext' functions.

File: libc.info, Node: Locating gettext catalog, Next: Advanced gettext functions, Prev: Translation with gettext, Up: Message catalogs with gettext
8.2.1.2 How to determine which catalog to be used
.................................................
The functions to retrieve the translations for a given message have a
remarkable simple interface. But to provide the user of the program
still the opportunity to select exactly the translation s/he wants and
also to provide the programmer the possibility to influence the way to
locate the search for catalogs files there is a quite complicated
underlying mechanism which controls all this. The code is complicated
the use is easy.
Basically we have two different tasks to perform which can also be
performed by the `catgets' functions:
1. Locate the set of message catalogs. There are a number of files
for different languages and which all belong to the package.
Usually they are all stored in the filesystem below a certain
directory.
There can be arbitrary many packages installed and they can follow
different guidelines for the placement of their files.
2. Relative to the location specified by the package the actual
translation files must be searched, based on the wishes of the
user. I.e., for each language the user selects the program should
be able to locate the appropriate file.
This is the functionality required by the specifications for
`gettext' and this is also what the `catgets' functions are able to do.
But there are some problems unresolved:
* The language to be used can be specified in several different ways.
There is no generally accepted standard for this and the user
always expects the program understand what s/he means. E.g., to
select the German translation one could write `de', `german', or
`deutsch' and the program should always react the same.
* Sometimes the specification of the user is too detailed. If s/he,
e.g., specifies `de_DE.ISO-8859-1' which means German, spoken in
Germany, coded using the ISO 8859-1 character set there is the
possibility that a message catalog matching this exactly is not
available. But there could be a catalog matching `de' and if the
character set used on the machine is always ISO 8859-1 there is no
reason why this later message catalog should not be used. (We
call this "message inheritance".)
* If a catalog for a wanted language is not available it is not
always the second best choice to fall back on the language of the
developer and simply not translate any message. Instead a user
might be better able to read the messages in another language and
so the user of the program should be able to define a precedence
order of languages.
We can divide the configuration actions in two parts: the one is
performed by the programmer, the other by the user. We will start with
the functions the programmer can use since the user configuration will
be based on this.
As the functions described in the last sections already mention
separate sets of messages can be selected by a "domain name". This is a
simple string which should be unique for each program part with uses a
separate domain. It is possible to use in one program arbitrary many
domains at the same time. E.g., the GNU C Library itself uses a domain
named `libc' while the program using the C Library could use a domain
named `foo'. The important point is that at any time exactly one
domain is active. This is controlled with the following function.
-- Function: char * textdomain (const char *DOMAINNAME)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe lock heap | AC-Unsafe lock mem
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `textdomain' function sets the default domain, which is used in
all future `gettext' calls, to DOMAINNAME. Please note that
`dgettext' and `dcgettext' calls are not influenced if the
DOMAINNAME parameter of these functions is not the null pointer.
Before the first call to `textdomain' the default domain is
`messages'. This is the name specified in the specification of
the `gettext' API. This name is as good as any other name. No
program should ever really use a domain with this name since this
can only lead to problems.
The function returns the value which is from now on taken as the
default domain. If the system went out of memory the returned
value is `NULL' and the global variable ERRNO is set to `ENOMEM'.
Despite the return value type being `char *' the return string must
not be changed. It is allocated internally by the `textdomain'
function.
If the DOMAINNAME parameter is the null pointer no new default
domain is set. Instead the currently selected default domain is
returned.
If the DOMAINNAME parameter is the empty string the default domain
is reset to its initial value, the domain with the name `messages'.
This possibility is questionable to use since the domain `messages'
really never should be used.
-- Function: char * bindtextdomain (const char *DOMAINNAME, const char
*DIRNAME)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem | *Note
POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `bindtextdomain' function can be used to specify the directory
which contains the message catalogs for domain DOMAINNAME for the
different languages. To be correct, this is the directory where
the hierarchy of directories is expected. Details are explained
below.
For the programmer it is important to note that the translations
which come with the program have be placed in a directory
hierarchy starting at, say, `/foo/bar'. Then the program should
make a `bindtextdomain' call to bind the domain for the current
program to this directory. So it is made sure the catalogs are
found. A correctly running program does not depend on the user
setting an environment variable.
The `bindtextdomain' function can be used several times and if the
DOMAINNAME argument is different the previously bound domains will
not be overwritten.
If the program which wish to use `bindtextdomain' at some point of
time use the `chdir' function to change the current working
directory it is important that the DIRNAME strings ought to be an
absolute pathname. Otherwise the addressed directory might vary
with the time.
If the DIRNAME parameter is the null pointer `bindtextdomain'
returns the currently selected directory for the domain with the
name DOMAINNAME.
The `bindtextdomain' function returns a pointer to a string
containing the name of the selected directory name. The string is
allocated internally in the function and must not be changed by the
user. If the system went out of core during the execution of
`bindtextdomain' the return value is `NULL' and the global
variable ERRNO is set accordingly.

File: libc.info, Node: Advanced gettext functions, Next: Charset conversion in gettext, Prev: Locating gettext catalog, Up: Message catalogs with gettext
8.2.1.3 Additional functions for more complicated situations
............................................................
The functions of the `gettext' family described so far (and all the
`catgets' functions as well) have one problem in the real world which
have been neglected completely in all existing approaches. What is
meant here is the handling of plural forms.
Looking through Unix source code before the time anybody thought
about internationalization (and, sadly, even afterwards) one can often
find code similar to the following:
printf ("%d file%s deleted", n, n == 1 ? "" : "s");
After the first complaints from people internationalizing the code
people either completely avoided formulations like this or used strings
like `"file(s)"'. Both look unnatural and should be avoided. First
tries to solve the problem correctly looked like this:
if (n == 1)
printf ("%d file deleted", n);
else
printf ("%d files deleted", n);
But this does not solve the problem. It helps languages where the
plural form of a noun is not simply constructed by adding an `s' but
that is all. Once again people fell into the trap of believing the
rules their language is using are universal. But the handling of plural
forms differs widely between the language families. There are two
things we can differ between (and even inside language families);
* The form how plural forms are build differs. This is a problem
with language which have many irregularities. German, for
instance, is a drastic case. Though English and German are part
of the same language family (Germanic), the almost regular forming
of plural noun forms (appending an `s') is hardly found in German.
* The number of plural forms differ. This is somewhat surprising for
those who only have experiences with Romanic and Germanic languages
since here the number is the same (there are two).
But other language families have only one form or many forms. More
information on this in an extra section.
The consequence of this is that application writers should not try to
solve the problem in their code. This would be localization since it is
only usable for certain, hardcoded language environments. Instead the
extended `gettext' interface should be used.
These extra functions are taking instead of the one key string two
strings and a numerical argument. The idea behind this is that using
the numerical argument and the first string as a key, the implementation
can select using rules specified by the translator the right plural
form. The two string arguments then will be used to provide a return
value in case no message catalog is found (similar to the normal
`gettext' behavior). In this case the rules for Germanic language is
used and it is assumed that the first string argument is the singular
form, the second the plural form.
This has the consequence that programs without language catalogs can
display the correct strings only if the program itself is written using
a Germanic language. This is a limitation but since the GNU C Library
(as well as the GNU `gettext' package) are written as part of the GNU
package and the coding standards for the GNU project require program
being written in English, this solution nevertheless fulfills its
purpose.
-- Function: char * ngettext (const char *MSGID1, const char *MSGID2,
unsigned long int N)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `ngettext' function is similar to the `gettext' function as it
finds the message catalogs in the same way. But it takes two
extra arguments. The MSGID1 parameter must contain the singular
form of the string to be converted. It is also used as the key
for the search in the catalog. The MSGID2 parameter is the plural
form. The parameter N is used to determine the plural form. If no
message catalog is found MSGID1 is returned if `n == 1', otherwise
`msgid2'.
An example for the us of this function is:
printf (ngettext ("%d file removed", "%d files removed", n), n);
Please note that the numeric value N has to be passed to the
`printf' function as well. It is not sufficient to pass it only to
`ngettext'.
-- Function: char * dngettext (const char *DOMAIN, const char *MSGID1,
const char *MSGID2, unsigned long int N)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `dngettext' is similar to the `dgettext' function in the way
the message catalog is selected. The difference is that it takes
two extra parameter to provide the correct plural form. These two
parameters are handled in the same way `ngettext' handles them.
-- Function: char * dcngettext (const char *DOMAIN, const char
*MSGID1, const char *MSGID2, unsigned long int N, int
CATEGORY)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `dcngettext' is similar to the `dcgettext' function in the way
the message catalog is selected. The difference is that it takes
two extra parameter to provide the correct plural form. These two
parameters are handled in the same way `ngettext' handles them.
The problem of plural forms
...........................
A description of the problem can be found at the beginning of the last
section. Now there is the question how to solve it. Without the input
of linguists (which was not available) it was not possible to determine
whether there are only a few different forms in which plural forms are
formed or whether the number can increase with every new supported
language.
Therefore the solution implemented is to allow the translator to
specify the rules of how to select the plural form. Since the formula
varies with every language this is the only viable solution except for
hardcoding the information in the code (which still would require the
possibility of extensions to not prevent the use of new languages). The
details are explained in the GNU `gettext' manual. Here only a bit of
information is provided.
The information about the plural form selection has to be stored in
the header entry (the one with the empty (`msgid' string). It looks
like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n == 1 ? 0 : 1;
The `nplurals' value must be a decimal number which specifies how
many different plural forms exist for this language. The string
following `plural' is an expression which is using the C language
syntax. Exceptions are that no negative number are allowed, numbers
must be decimal, and the only variable allowed is `n'. This expression
will be evaluated whenever one of the functions `ngettext',
`dngettext', or `dcngettext' is called. The numeric value passed to
these functions is then substituted for all uses of the variable `n' in
the expression. The resulting value then must be greater or equal to
zero and smaller than the value given as the value of `nplurals'.
The following rules are known at this point. The language with families
are listed. But this does not necessarily mean the information can be
generalized for the whole family (as can be easily seen in the table
below).(1)
Only one form:
Some languages only require one single form. There is no
distinction between the singular and plural form. An appropriate
header entry would look like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=1; plural=0;
Languages with this property include:
Finno-Ugric family
Hungarian
Asian family
Japanese, Korean
Turkic/Altaic family
Turkish
Two forms, singular used for one only
This is the form used in most existing programs since it is what
English is using. A header entry would look like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n != 1;
(Note: this uses the feature of C expressions that boolean
expressions have to value zero or one.)
Languages with this property include:
Germanic family
Danish, Dutch, English, German, Norwegian, Swedish
Finno-Ugric family
Estonian, Finnish
Latin/Greek family
Greek
Semitic family
Hebrew
Romance family
Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
Artificial
Esperanto
Two forms, singular used for zero and one
Exceptional case in the language family. The header entry would
be:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=2; plural=n>1;
Languages with this property include:
Romanic family
French, Brazilian Portuguese
Three forms, special case for zero
The header entry would be:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : n != 0 ? 1 : 2;
Languages with this property include:
Baltic family
Latvian
Three forms, special cases for one and two
The header entry would be:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; plural=n==1 ? 0 : n==2 ? 1 : 2;
Languages with this property include:
Celtic
Gaeilge (Irish)
Three forms, special case for numbers ending in 1[2-9]
The header entry would look like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
plural=n%10==1 && n%100!=11 ? 0 : \
n%10>=2 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;
Languages with this property include:
Baltic family
Lithuanian
Three forms, special cases for numbers ending in 1 and 2, 3, 4, except those ending in 1[1-4]
The header entry would look like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
plural=n%100/10==1 ? 2 : n%10==1 ? 0 : (n+9)%10>3 ? 2 : 1;
Languages with this property include:
Slavic family
Croatian, Czech, Russian, Ukrainian
Three forms, special cases for 1 and 2, 3, 4
The header entry would look like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
plural=(n==1) ? 1 : (n>=2 && n<=4) ? 2 : 0;
Languages with this property include:
Slavic family
Slovak
Three forms, special case for one and some numbers ending in 2, 3, or 4
The header entry would look like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=3; \
plural=n==1 ? 0 : \
n%10>=2 && n%10<=4 && (n%100<10 || n%100>=20) ? 1 : 2;
Languages with this property include:
Slavic family
Polish
Four forms, special case for one and all numbers ending in 02, 03, or 04
The header entry would look like this:
Plural-Forms: nplurals=4; \
plural=n%100==1 ? 0 : n%100==2 ? 1 : n%100==3 || n%100==4 ? 2 : 3;
Languages with this property include:
Slavic family
Slovenian
---------- Footnotes ----------
(1) Additions are welcome. Send appropriate information to
<bug-glibc-manual@gnu.org>.

File: libc.info, Node: Charset conversion in gettext, Next: GUI program problems, Prev: Advanced gettext functions, Up: Message catalogs with gettext
8.2.1.4 How to specify the output character set `gettext' uses
..............................................................
`gettext' not only looks up a translation in a message catalog. It
also converts the translation on the fly to the desired output character
set. This is useful if the user is working in a different character set
than the translator who created the message catalog, because it avoids
distributing variants of message catalogs which differ only in the
character set.
The output character set is, by default, the value of `nl_langinfo
(CODESET)', which depends on the `LC_CTYPE' part of the current locale.
But programs which store strings in a locale independent way (e.g.
UTF-8) can request that `gettext' and related functions return the
translations in that encoding, by use of the `bind_textdomain_codeset'
function.
Note that the MSGID argument to `gettext' is not subject to
character set conversion. Also, when `gettext' does not find a
translation for MSGID, it returns MSGID unchanged - independently of
the current output character set. It is therefore recommended that all
MSGIDs be US-ASCII strings.
-- Function: char * bind_textdomain_codeset (const char *DOMAINNAME,
const char *CODESET)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem | *Note
POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `bind_textdomain_codeset' function can be used to specify the
output character set for message catalogs for domain DOMAINNAME.
The CODESET argument must be a valid codeset name which can be used
for the `iconv_open' function, or a null pointer.
If the CODESET parameter is the null pointer,
`bind_textdomain_codeset' returns the currently selected codeset
for the domain with the name DOMAINNAME. It returns `NULL' if no
codeset has yet been selected.
The `bind_textdomain_codeset' function can be used several times.
If used multiple times with the same DOMAINNAME argument, the
later call overrides the settings made by the earlier one.
The `bind_textdomain_codeset' function returns a pointer to a
string containing the name of the selected codeset. The string is
allocated internally in the function and must not be changed by the
user. If the system went out of core during the execution of
`bind_textdomain_codeset', the return value is `NULL' and the
global variable ERRNO is set accordingly.

File: libc.info, Node: GUI program problems, Next: Using gettextized software, Prev: Charset conversion in gettext, Up: Message catalogs with gettext
8.2.1.5 How to use `gettext' in GUI programs
............................................
One place where the `gettext' functions, if used normally, have big
problems is within programs with graphical user interfaces (GUIs). The
problem is that many of the strings which have to be translated are very
short. They have to appear in pull-down menus which restricts the
length. But strings which are not containing entire sentences or at
least large fragments of a sentence may appear in more than one
situation in the program but might have different translations. This is
especially true for the one-word strings which are frequently used in
GUI programs.
As a consequence many people say that the `gettext' approach is
wrong and instead `catgets' should be used which indeed does not have
this problem. But there is a very simple and powerful method to handle
these kind of problems with the `gettext' functions.
As an example consider the following fictional situation. A GUI program
has a menu bar with the following entries:
+------------+------------+--------------------------------------+
| File | Printer | |
+------------+------------+--------------------------------------+
| Open | | Select |
| New | | Open |
+----------+ | Connect |
+----------+
To have the strings `File', `Printer', `Open', `New', `Select', and
`Connect' translated there has to be at some point in the code a call
to a function of the `gettext' family. But in two places the string
passed into the function would be `Open'. The translations might not
be the same and therefore we are in the dilemma described above.
One solution to this problem is to artificially enlengthen the
strings to make them unambiguous. But what would the program do if no
translation is available? The enlengthened string is not what should be
printed. So we should use a little bit modified version of the
functions.
To enlengthen the strings a uniform method should be used. E.g., in
the example above the strings could be chosen as
Menu|File
Menu|Printer
Menu|File|Open
Menu|File|New
Menu|Printer|Select
Menu|Printer|Open
Menu|Printer|Connect
Now all the strings are different and if now instead of `gettext'
the following little wrapper function is used, everything works just
fine:
char *
sgettext (const char *msgid)
{
char *msgval = gettext (msgid);
if (msgval == msgid)
msgval = strrchr (msgid, '|') + 1;
return msgval;
}
What this little function does is to recognize the case when no
translation is available. This can be done very efficiently by a
pointer comparison since the return value is the input value. If there
is no translation we know that the input string is in the format we used
for the Menu entries and therefore contains a `|' character. We simply
search for the last occurrence of this character and return a pointer
to the character following it. That's it!
If one now consistently uses the enlengthened string form and
replaces the `gettext' calls with calls to `sgettext' (this is normally
limited to very few places in the GUI implementation) then it is
possible to produce a program which can be internationalized.
With advanced compilers (such as GNU C) one can write the `sgettext'
functions as an inline function or as a macro like this:
#define sgettext(msgid) \
({ const char *__msgid = (msgid); \
char *__msgstr = gettext (__msgid); \
if (__msgval == __msgid) \
__msgval = strrchr (__msgid, '|') + 1; \
__msgval; })
The other `gettext' functions (`dgettext', `dcgettext' and the
`ngettext' equivalents) can and should have corresponding functions as
well which look almost identical, except for the parameters and the
call to the underlying function.
Now there is of course the question why such functions do not exist
in the GNU C Library? There are two parts of the answer to this
question.
* They are easy to write and therefore can be provided by the
project they are used in. This is not an answer by itself and
must be seen together with the second part which is:
* There is no way the C library can contain a version which can work
everywhere. The problem is the selection of the character to
separate the prefix from the actual string in the enlenghtened
string. The examples above used `|' which is a quite good choice
because it resembles a notation frequently used in this context
and it also is a character not often used in message strings.
But what if the character is used in message strings. Or if the
chose character is not available in the character set on the
machine one compiles (e.g., `|' is not required to exist for
ISO C; this is why the `iso646.h' file exists in ISO C programming
environments).
There is only one more comment to make left. The wrapper function
above require that the translations strings are not enlengthened
themselves. This is only logical. There is no need to disambiguate
the strings (since they are never used as keys for a search) and one
also saves quite some memory and disk space by doing this.

File: libc.info, Node: Using gettextized software, Prev: GUI program problems, Up: Message catalogs with gettext
8.2.1.6 User influence on `gettext'
...................................
The last sections described what the programmer can do to
internationalize the messages of the program. But it is finally up to
the user to select the message s/he wants to see. S/He must understand
them.
The POSIX locale model uses the environment variables `LC_COLLATE',
`LC_CTYPE', `LC_MESSAGES', `LC_MONETARY', `LC_NUMERIC', and `LC_TIME'
to select the locale which is to be used. This way the user can
influence lots of functions. As we mentioned above the `gettext'
functions also take advantage of this.
To understand how this happens it is necessary to take a look at the
various components of the filename which gets computed to locate a
message catalog. It is composed as follows:
DIR_NAME/LOCALE/LC_CATEGORY/DOMAIN_NAME.mo
The default value for DIR_NAME is system specific. It is computed
from the value given as the prefix while configuring the C library.
This value normally is `/usr' or `/'. For the former the complete
DIR_NAME is:
/usr/share/locale
We can use `/usr/share' since the `.mo' files containing the message
catalogs are system independent, so all systems can use the same files.
If the program executed the `bindtextdomain' function for the message
domain that is currently handled, the `dir_name' component is exactly
the value which was given to the function as the second parameter.
I.e., `bindtextdomain' allows overwriting the only system dependent and
fixed value to make it possible to address files anywhere in the
filesystem.
The CATEGORY is the name of the locale category which was selected
in the program code. For `gettext' and `dgettext' this is always
`LC_MESSAGES', for `dcgettext' this is selected by the value of the
third parameter. As said above it should be avoided to ever use a
category other than `LC_MESSAGES'.
The LOCALE component is computed based on the category used. Just
like for the `setlocale' function here comes the user selection into
the play. Some environment variables are examined in a fixed order and
the first environment variable set determines the return value of the
lookup process. In detail, for the category `LC_xxx' the following
variables in this order are examined:
`LANGUAGE'
`LC_ALL'
`LC_xxx'
`LANG'
This looks very familiar. With the exception of the `LANGUAGE'
environment variable this is exactly the lookup order the `setlocale'
function uses. But why introducing the `LANGUAGE' variable?
The reason is that the syntax of the values these variables can have
is different to what is expected by the `setlocale' function. If we
would set `LC_ALL' to a value following the extended syntax that would
mean the `setlocale' function will never be able to use the value of
this variable as well. An additional variable removes this problem
plus we can select the language independently of the locale setting
which sometimes is useful.
While for the `LC_xxx' variables the value should consist of exactly
one specification of a locale the `LANGUAGE' variable's value can
consist of a colon separated list of locale names. The attentive
reader will realize that this is the way we manage to implement one of
our additional demands above: we want to be able to specify an ordered
list of language.
Back to the constructed filename we have only one component missing.
The DOMAIN_NAME part is the name which was either registered using the
`textdomain' function or which was given to `dgettext' or `dcgettext'
as the first parameter. Now it becomes obvious that a good choice for
the domain name in the program code is a string which is closely
related to the program/package name. E.g., for the GNU C Library the
domain name is `libc'.
A limit piece of example code should show how the programmer is supposed
to work:
{
setlocale (LC_ALL, "");
textdomain ("test-package");
bindtextdomain ("test-package", "/usr/local/share/locale");
puts (gettext ("Hello, world!"));
}
At the program start the default domain is `messages', and the
default locale is "C". The `setlocale' call sets the locale according
to the user's environment variables; remember that correct functioning
of `gettext' relies on the correct setting of the `LC_MESSAGES' locale
(for looking up the message catalog) and of the `LC_CTYPE' locale (for
the character set conversion). The `textdomain' call changes the
default domain to `test-package'. The `bindtextdomain' call specifies
that the message catalogs for the domain `test-package' can be found
below the directory `/usr/local/share/locale'.
If now the user set in her/his environment the variable `LANGUAGE'
to `de' the `gettext' function will try to use the translations from
the file
/usr/local/share/locale/de/LC_MESSAGES/test-package.mo
From the above descriptions it should be clear which component of
this filename is determined by which source.
In the above example we assumed that the `LANGUAGE' environment
variable to `de'. This might be an appropriate selection but what
happens if the user wants to use `LC_ALL' because of the wider
usability and here the required value is `de_DE.ISO-8859-1'? We
already mentioned above that a situation like this is not infrequent.
E.g., a person might prefer reading a dialect and if this is not
available fall back on the standard language.
The `gettext' functions know about situations like this and can
handle them gracefully. The functions recognize the format of the value
of the environment variable. It can split the value is different pieces
and by leaving out the only or the other part it can construct new
values. This happens of course in a predictable way. To understand
this one must know the format of the environment variable value. There
is one more or less standardized form, originally from the X/Open
specification:
`language[_territory[.codeset]][@modifier]'
Less specific locale names will be stripped of in the order of the
following list:
1. `codeset'
2. `normalized codeset'
3. `territory'
4. `modifier'
The `language' field will never be dropped for obvious reasons.
The only new thing is the `normalized codeset' entry. This is
another goodie which is introduced to help reducing the chaos which
derives from the inability of the people to standardize the names of
character sets. Instead of ISO-8859-1 one can often see 8859-1, 88591,
iso8859-1, or iso_8859-1. The `normalized codeset' value is generated
from the user-provided character set name by applying the following
rules:
1. Remove all characters beside numbers and letters.
2. Fold letters to lowercase.
3. If the same only contains digits prepend the string `"iso"'.
So all of the above name will be normalized to `iso88591'. This allows
the program user much more freely choosing the locale name.
Even this extended functionality still does not help to solve the
problem that completely different names can be used to denote the same
locale (e.g., `de' and `german'). To be of help in this situation the
locale implementation and also the `gettext' functions know about
aliases.
The file `/usr/share/locale/locale.alias' (replace `/usr' with
whatever prefix you used for configuring the C library) contains a
mapping of alternative names to more regular names. The system manager
is free to add new entries to fill her/his own needs. The selected
locale from the environment is compared with the entries in the first
column of this file ignoring the case. If they match the value of the
second column is used instead for the further handling.
In the description of the format of the environment variables we
already mentioned the character set as a factor in the selection of the
message catalog. In fact, only catalogs which contain text written
using the character set of the system/program can be used (directly;
there will come a solution for this some day). This means for the user
that s/he will always have to take care for this. If in the collection
of the message catalogs there are files for the same language but coded
using different character sets the user has to be careful.

File: libc.info, Node: Helper programs for gettext, Prev: Message catalogs with gettext, Up: The Uniforum approach
8.2.2 Programs to handle message catalogs for `gettext'
-------------------------------------------------------
The GNU C Library does not contain the source code for the programs to
handle message catalogs for the `gettext' functions. As part of the
GNU project the GNU gettext package contains everything the developer
needs. The functionality provided by the tools in this package by far
exceeds the abilities of the `gencat' program described above for the
`catgets' functions.
There is a program `msgfmt' which is the equivalent program to the
`gencat' program. It generates from the human-readable and -editable
form of the message catalog a binary file which can be used by the
`gettext' functions. But there are several more programs available.
The `xgettext' program can be used to automatically extract the
translatable messages from a source file. I.e., the programmer need not
take care of the translations and the list of messages which have to be
translated. S/He will simply wrap the translatable string in calls to
`gettext' et.al and the rest will be done by `xgettext'. This program
has a lot of options which help to customize the output or help to
understand the input better.
Other programs help to manage the development cycle when new
messages appear in the source files or when a new translation of the
messages appears. Here it should only be noted that using all the
tools in GNU gettext it is possible to _completely_ automate the
handling of message catalogs. Beside marking the translatable strings
in the source code and generating the translations the developers do
not have anything to do themselves.

File: libc.info, Node: Searching and Sorting, Next: Pattern Matching, Prev: Message Translation, Up: Top
9 Searching and Sorting
***********************
This chapter describes functions for searching and sorting arrays of
arbitrary objects. You pass the appropriate comparison function to be
applied as an argument, along with the size of the objects in the array
and the total number of elements.
* Menu:
* Comparison Functions:: Defining how to compare two objects.
Since the sort and search facilities
are general, you have to specify the
ordering.
* Array Search Function:: The `bsearch' function.
* Array Sort Function:: The `qsort' function.
* Search/Sort Example:: An example program.
* Hash Search Function:: The `hsearch' function.
* Tree Search Function:: The `tsearch' function.

File: libc.info, Node: Comparison Functions, Next: Array Search Function, Up: Searching and Sorting
9.1 Defining the Comparison Function
====================================
In order to use the sorted array library functions, you have to describe
how to compare the elements of the array.
To do this, you supply a comparison function to compare two elements
of the array. The library will call this function, passing as arguments
pointers to two array elements to be compared. Your comparison function
should return a value the way `strcmp' (*note String/Array
Comparison::) does: negative if the first argument is "less" than the
second, zero if they are "equal", and positive if the first argument is
"greater".
Here is an example of a comparison function which works with an
array of numbers of type `double':
int
compare_doubles (const void *a, const void *b)
{
const double *da = (const double *) a;
const double *db = (const double *) b;
return (*da > *db) - (*da < *db);
}
The header file `stdlib.h' defines a name for the data type of
comparison functions. This type is a GNU extension.
int comparison_fn_t (const void *, const void *);

File: libc.info, Node: Array Search Function, Next: Array Sort Function, Prev: Comparison Functions, Up: Searching and Sorting
9.2 Array Search Function
=========================
Generally searching for a specific element in an array means that
potentially all elements must be checked. The GNU C Library contains
functions to perform linear search. The prototypes for the following
two functions can be found in `search.h'.
-- Function: void * lfind (const void *KEY, const void *BASE, size_t
*NMEMB, size_t SIZE, comparison_fn_t COMPAR)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX Safety
Concepts::.
The `lfind' function searches in the array with `*NMEMB' elements
of SIZE bytes pointed to by BASE for an element which matches the
one pointed to by KEY. The function pointed to by COMPAR is used
decide whether two elements match.
The return value is a pointer to the matching element in the array
starting at BASE if it is found. If no matching element is
available `NULL' is returned.
The mean runtime of this function is `*NMEMB'/2. This function
should only be used if elements often get added to or deleted from
the array in which case it might not be useful to sort the array
before searching.
-- Function: void * lsearch (const void *KEY, void *BASE, size_t
*NMEMB, size_t SIZE, comparison_fn_t COMPAR)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX Safety
Concepts::.
The `lsearch' function is similar to the `lfind' function. It
searches the given array for an element and returns it if found.
The difference is that if no matching element is found the
`lsearch' function adds the object pointed to by KEY (with a size
of SIZE bytes) at the end of the array and it increments the value
of `*NMEMB' to reflect this addition.
This means for the caller that if it is not sure that the array
contains the element one is searching for the memory allocated for
the array starting at BASE must have room for at least SIZE more
bytes. If one is sure the element is in the array it is better to
use `lfind' so having more room in the array is always necessary
when calling `lsearch'.
To search a sorted array for an element matching the key, use the
`bsearch' function. The prototype for this function is in the header
file `stdlib.h'.
-- Function: void * bsearch (const void *KEY, const void *ARRAY,
size_t COUNT, size_t SIZE, comparison_fn_t COMPARE)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX Safety
Concepts::.
The `bsearch' function searches the sorted array ARRAY for an
object that is equivalent to KEY. The array contains COUNT
elements, each of which is of size SIZE bytes.
The COMPARE function is used to perform the comparison. This
function is called with two pointer arguments and should return an
integer less than, equal to, or greater than zero corresponding to
whether its first argument is considered less than, equal to, or
greater than its second argument. The elements of the ARRAY must
already be sorted in ascending order according to this comparison
function.
The return value is a pointer to the matching array element, or a
null pointer if no match is found. If the array contains more
than one element that matches, the one that is returned is
unspecified.
This function derives its name from the fact that it is implemented
using the binary search algorithm.

File: libc.info, Node: Array Sort Function, Next: Search/Sort Example, Prev: Array Search Function, Up: Searching and Sorting
9.3 Array Sort Function
=======================
To sort an array using an arbitrary comparison function, use the
`qsort' function. The prototype for this function is in `stdlib.h'.
-- Function: void qsort (void *ARRAY, size_t COUNT, size_t SIZE,
comparison_fn_t COMPARE)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Unsafe corrupt | *Note POSIX
Safety Concepts::.
The QSORT function sorts the array ARRAY. The array contains
COUNT elements, each of which is of size SIZE.
The COMPARE function is used to perform the comparison on the
array elements. This function is called with two pointer
arguments and should return an integer less than, equal to, or
greater than zero corresponding to whether its first argument is
considered less than, equal to, or greater than its second
argument.
*Warning:* If two objects compare as equal, their order after
sorting is unpredictable. That is to say, the sorting is not
stable. This can make a difference when the comparison considers
only part of the elements. Two elements with the same sort key
may differ in other respects.
If you want the effect of a stable sort, you can get this result by
writing the comparison function so that, lacking other reason
distinguish between two elements, it compares them by their
addresses. Note that doing this may make the sorting algorithm
less efficient, so do it only if necessary.
Here is a simple example of sorting an array of doubles in
numerical order, using the comparison function defined above
(*note Comparison Functions::):
{
double *array;
int size;
...
qsort (array, size, sizeof (double), compare_doubles);
}
The `qsort' function derives its name from the fact that it was
originally implemented using the "quick sort" algorithm.
The implementation of `qsort' in this library might not be an
in-place sort and might thereby use an extra amount of memory to
store the array.

File: libc.info, Node: Search/Sort Example, Next: Hash Search Function, Prev: Array Sort Function, Up: Searching and Sorting
9.4 Searching and Sorting Example
=================================
Here is an example showing the use of `qsort' and `bsearch' with an
array of structures. The objects in the array are sorted by comparing
their `name' fields with the `strcmp' function. Then, we can look up
individual objects based on their names.
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
/* Define an array of critters to sort. */
struct critter
{
const char *name;
const char *species;
};
struct critter muppets[] =
{
{"Kermit", "frog"},
{"Piggy", "pig"},
{"Gonzo", "whatever"},
{"Fozzie", "bear"},
{"Sam", "eagle"},
{"Robin", "frog"},
{"Animal", "animal"},
{"Camilla", "chicken"},
{"Sweetums", "monster"},
{"Dr. Strangepork", "pig"},
{"Link Hogthrob", "pig"},
{"Zoot", "human"},
{"Dr. Bunsen Honeydew", "human"},
{"Beaker", "human"},
{"Swedish Chef", "human"}
};
int count = sizeof (muppets) / sizeof (struct critter);
/* This is the comparison function used for sorting and searching. */
int
critter_cmp (const void *v1, const void *v2)
{
const struct critter *c1 = v1;
const struct critter *c2 = v2;
return strcmp (c1->name, c2->name);
}
/* Print information about a critter. */
void
print_critter (const struct critter *c)
{
printf ("%s, the %s\n", c->name, c->species);
}
/* Do the lookup into the sorted array. */
void
find_critter (const char *name)
{
struct critter target, *result;
target.name = name;
result = bsearch (&target, muppets, count, sizeof (struct critter),
critter_cmp);
if (result)
print_critter (result);
else
printf ("Couldn't find %s.\n", name);
}
/* Main program. */
int
main (void)
{
int i;
for (i = 0; i < count; i++)
print_critter (&muppets[i]);
printf ("\n");
qsort (muppets, count, sizeof (struct critter), critter_cmp);
for (i = 0; i < count; i++)
print_critter (&muppets[i]);
printf ("\n");
find_critter ("Kermit");
find_critter ("Gonzo");
find_critter ("Janice");
return 0;
}
The output from this program looks like:
Kermit, the frog
Piggy, the pig
Gonzo, the whatever
Fozzie, the bear
Sam, the eagle
Robin, the frog
Animal, the animal
Camilla, the chicken
Sweetums, the monster
Dr. Strangepork, the pig
Link Hogthrob, the pig
Zoot, the human
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, the human
Beaker, the human
Swedish Chef, the human
Animal, the animal
Beaker, the human
Camilla, the chicken
Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, the human
Dr. Strangepork, the pig
Fozzie, the bear
Gonzo, the whatever
Kermit, the frog
Link Hogthrob, the pig
Piggy, the pig
Robin, the frog
Sam, the eagle
Swedish Chef, the human
Sweetums, the monster
Zoot, the human
Kermit, the frog
Gonzo, the whatever
Couldn't find Janice.

File: libc.info, Node: Hash Search Function, Next: Tree Search Function, Prev: Search/Sort Example, Up: Searching and Sorting
9.5 The `hsearch' function.
===========================
The functions mentioned so far in this chapter are for searching in a
sorted or unsorted array. There are other methods to organize
information which later should be searched. The costs of insert,
delete and search differ. One possible implementation is using hashing
tables. The following functions are declared in the header file
`search.h'.
-- Function: int hcreate (size_t NEL)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:hsearch | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe
corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `hcreate' function creates a hashing table which can contain at
least NEL elements. There is no possibility to grow this table so
it is necessary to choose the value for NEL wisely. The method
used to implement this function might make it necessary to make the
number of elements in the hashing table larger than the expected
maximal number of elements. Hashing tables usually work
inefficiently if they are filled 80% or more. The constant access
time guaranteed by hashing can only be achieved if few collisions
exist. See Knuth's "The Art of Computer Programming, Part 3:
Searching and Sorting" for more information.
The weakest aspect of this function is that there can be at most
one hashing table used through the whole program. The table is
allocated in local memory out of control of the programmer. As an
extension the GNU C Library provides an additional set of
functions with a reentrant interface which provide a similar
interface but which allow to keep arbitrarily many hashing tables.
It is possible to use more than one hashing table in the program
run if the former table is first destroyed by a call to `hdestroy'.
The function returns a non-zero value if successful. If it return
zero something went wrong. This could either mean there is
already a hashing table in use or the program runs out of memory.
-- Function: void hdestroy (void)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:hsearch | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe
corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `hdestroy' function can be used to free all the resources
allocated in a previous call of `hcreate'. After a call to this
function it is again possible to call `hcreate' and allocate a new
table with possibly different size.
It is important to remember that the elements contained in the
hashing table at the time `hdestroy' is called are _not_ freed by
this function. It is the responsibility of the program code to
free those strings (if necessary at all). Freeing all the element
memory is not possible without extra, separately kept information
since there is no function to iterate through all available
elements in the hashing table. If it is really necessary to free
a table and all elements the programmer has to keep a list of all
table elements and before calling `hdestroy' s/he has to free all
element's data using this list. This is a very unpleasant
mechanism and it also shows that this kind of hashing tables is
mainly meant for tables which are created once and used until the
end of the program run.
Entries of the hashing table and keys for the search are defined
using this type:
-- Data type: struct ENTRY
Both elements of this structure are pointers to zero-terminated
strings. This is a limiting restriction of the functionality of
the `hsearch' functions. They can only be used for data sets
which use the NUL character always and solely to terminate the
records. It is not possible to handle general binary data.
`char *key'
Pointer to a zero-terminated string of characters describing
the key for the search or the element in the hashing table.
`char *data'
Pointer to a zero-terminated string of characters describing
the data. If the functions will be called only for searching
an existing entry this element might stay undefined since it
is not used.
-- Function: ENTRY * hsearch (ENTRY ITEM, ACTION ACTION)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:hsearch | AS-Unsafe | AC-Unsafe
corrupt/action==ENTER | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
To search in a hashing table created using `hcreate' the `hsearch'
function must be used. This function can perform simple search
for an element (if ACTION has the `FIND') or it can alternatively
insert the key element into the hashing table. Entries are never
replaced.
The key is denoted by a pointer to an object of type `ENTRY'. For
locating the corresponding position in the hashing table only the
`key' element of the structure is used.
If an entry with matching key is found the ACTION parameter is
irrelevant. The found entry is returned. If no matching entry is
found and the ACTION parameter has the value `FIND' the function
returns a `NULL' pointer. If no entry is found and the ACTION
parameter has the value `ENTER' a new entry is added to the
hashing table which is initialized with the parameter ITEM. A
pointer to the newly added entry is returned.
As mentioned before the hashing table used by the functions
described so far is global and there can be at any time at most one
hashing table in the program. A solution is to use the following
functions which are a GNU extension. All have in common that they
operate on a hashing table which is described by the content of an
object of the type `struct hsearch_data'. This type should be treated
as opaque, none of its members should be changed directly.
-- Function: int hcreate_r (size_t NEL, struct hsearch_data *HTAB)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:htab | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe
corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `hcreate_r' function initializes the object pointed to by HTAB
to contain a hashing table with at least NEL elements. So this
function is equivalent to the `hcreate' function except that the
initialized data structure is controlled by the user.
This allows having more than one hashing table at one time. The
memory necessary for the `struct hsearch_data' object can be
allocated dynamically. It must be initialized with zero before
calling this function.
The return value is non-zero if the operation was successful. If
the return value is zero, something went wrong, which probably
means the programs ran out of memory.
-- Function: void hdestroy_r (struct hsearch_data *HTAB)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:htab | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe
corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `hdestroy_r' function frees all resources allocated by the
`hcreate_r' function for this very same object HTAB. As for
`hdestroy' it is the programs responsibility to free the strings
for the elements of the table.
-- Function: int hsearch_r (ENTRY ITEM, ACTION ACTION, ENTRY **RETVAL,
struct hsearch_data *HTAB)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:htab | AS-Safe | AC-Unsafe
corrupt/action==ENTER | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `hsearch_r' function is equivalent to `hsearch'. The meaning
of the first two arguments is identical. But instead of operating
on a single global hashing table the function works on the table
described by the object pointed to by HTAB (which is initialized
by a call to `hcreate_r').
Another difference to `hcreate' is that the pointer to the found
entry in the table is not the return value of the functions. It is
returned by storing it in a pointer variables pointed to by the
RETVAL parameter. The return value of the function is an integer
value indicating success if it is non-zero and failure if it is
zero. In the latter case the global variable ERRNO signals the
reason for the failure.
`ENOMEM'
The table is filled and `hsearch_r' was called with a so far
unknown key and ACTION set to `ENTER'.
`ESRCH'
The ACTION parameter is `FIND' and no corresponding element
is found in the table.

File: libc.info, Node: Tree Search Function, Prev: Hash Search Function, Up: Searching and Sorting
9.6 The `tsearch' function.
===========================
Another common form to organize data for efficient search is to use
trees. The `tsearch' function family provides a nice interface to
functions to organize possibly large amounts of data by providing a mean
access time proportional to the logarithm of the number of elements.
The GNU C Library implementation even guarantees that this bound is
never exceeded even for input data which cause problems for simple
binary tree implementations.
The functions described in the chapter are all described in the
System V and X/Open specifications and are therefore quite portable.
In contrast to the `hsearch' functions the `tsearch' functions can
be used with arbitrary data and not only zero-terminated strings.
The `tsearch' functions have the advantage that no function to
initialize data structures is necessary. A simple pointer of type
`void *' initialized to `NULL' is a valid tree and can be extended or
searched. The prototypes for these functions can be found in the
header file `search.h'.
-- Function: void * tsearch (const void *KEY, void **ROOTP,
comparison_fn_t COMPAR)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:rootp | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe
corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `tsearch' function searches in the tree pointed to by `*ROOTP'
for an element matching KEY. The function pointed to by COMPAR is
used to determine whether two elements match. *Note Comparison
Functions::, for a specification of the functions which can be
used for the COMPAR parameter.
If the tree does not contain a matching entry the KEY value will
be added to the tree. `tsearch' does not make a copy of the object
pointed to by KEY (how could it since the size is unknown).
Instead it adds a reference to this object which means the object
must be available as long as the tree data structure is used.
The tree is represented by a pointer to a pointer since it is
sometimes necessary to change the root node of the tree. So it
must not be assumed that the variable pointed to by ROOTP has the
same value after the call. This also shows that it is not safe to
call the `tsearch' function more than once at the same time using
the same tree. It is no problem to run it more than once at a
time on different trees.
The return value is a pointer to the matching element in the tree.
If a new element was created the pointer points to the new data
(which is in fact KEY). If an entry had to be created and the
program ran out of space `NULL' is returned.
-- Function: void * tfind (const void *KEY, void *const *ROOTP,
comparison_fn_t COMPAR)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:rootp | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note
POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `tfind' function is similar to the `tsearch' function. It
locates an element matching the one pointed to by KEY and returns
a pointer to this element. But if no matching element is
available no new element is entered (note that the ROOTP parameter
points to a constant pointer). Instead the function returns
`NULL'.
Another advantage of the `tsearch' function in contrast to the
`hsearch' functions is that there is an easy way to remove elements.
-- Function: void * tdelete (const void *KEY, void **ROOTP,
comparison_fn_t COMPAR)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:rootp | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe
corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
To remove a specific element matching KEY from the tree `tdelete'
can be used. It locates the matching element using the same
method as `tfind'. The corresponding element is then removed and
a pointer to the parent of the deleted node is returned by the
function. If there is no matching entry in the tree nothing can be
deleted and the function returns `NULL'. If the root of the tree
is deleted `tdelete' returns some unspecified value not equal to
`NULL'.
-- Function: void tdestroy (void *VROOT, __free_fn_t FREEFCT)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem | *Note
POSIX Safety Concepts::.
If the complete search tree has to be removed one can use
`tdestroy'. It frees all resources allocated by the `tsearch'
function to generate the tree pointed to by VROOT.
For the data in each tree node the function FREEFCT is called.
The pointer to the data is passed as the argument to the function.
If no such work is necessary FREEFCT must point to a function doing
nothing. It is called in any case.
This function is a GNU extension and not covered by the System V or
X/Open specifications.
In addition to the function to create and destroy the tree data
structure, there is another function which allows you to apply a
function to all elements of the tree. The function must have this type:
void __action_fn_t (const void *nodep, VISIT value, int level);
The NODEP is the data value of the current node (once given as the
KEY argument to `tsearch'). LEVEL is a numeric value which corresponds
to the depth of the current node in the tree. The root node has the
depth 0 and its children have a depth of 1 and so on. The `VISIT' type
is an enumeration type.
-- Data Type: VISIT
The `VISIT' value indicates the status of the current node in the
tree and how the function is called. The status of a node is
either `leaf' or `internal node'. For each leaf node the function
is called exactly once, for each internal node it is called three
times: before the first child is processed, after the first child
is processed and after both children are processed. This makes it
possible to handle all three methods of tree traversal (or even a
combination of them).
`preorder'
The current node is an internal node and the function is
called before the first child was processed.
`postorder'
The current node is an internal node and the function is
called after the first child was processed.
`endorder'
The current node is an internal node and the function is
called after the second child was processed.
`leaf'
The current node is a leaf.
-- Function: void twalk (const void *ROOT, __action_fn_t ACTION)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:root | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX
Safety Concepts::.
For each node in the tree with a node pointed to by ROOT, the
`twalk' function calls the function provided by the parameter
ACTION. For leaf nodes the function is called exactly once with
VALUE set to `leaf'. For internal nodes the function is called
three times, setting the VALUE parameter or ACTION to the
appropriate value. The LEVEL argument for the ACTION function is
computed while descending the tree with increasing the value by
one for the descend to a child, starting with the value 0 for the
root node.
Since the functions used for the ACTION parameter to `twalk' must
not modify the tree data, it is safe to run `twalk' in more than
one thread at the same time, working on the same tree. It is also
safe to call `tfind' in parallel. Functions which modify the tree
must not be used, otherwise the behavior is undefined.

File: libc.info, Node: Pattern Matching, Next: I/O Overview, Prev: Searching and Sorting, Up: Top
10 Pattern Matching
*******************
The GNU C Library provides pattern matching facilities for two kinds of
patterns: regular expressions and file-name wildcards. The library also
provides a facility for expanding variable and command references and
parsing text into words in the way the shell does.
* Menu:
* Wildcard Matching:: Matching a wildcard pattern against a single string.
* Globbing:: Finding the files that match a wildcard pattern.
* Regular Expressions:: Matching regular expressions against strings.
* Word Expansion:: Expanding shell variables, nested commands,
arithmetic, and wildcards.
This is what the shell does with shell commands.

File: libc.info, Node: Wildcard Matching, Next: Globbing, Up: Pattern Matching
10.1 Wildcard Matching
======================
This section describes how to match a wildcard pattern against a
particular string. The result is a yes or no answer: does the string
fit the pattern or not. The symbols described here are all declared in
`fnmatch.h'.
-- Function: int fnmatch (const char *PATTERN, const char *STRING, int
FLAGS)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env locale | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function tests whether the string STRING matches the pattern
PATTERN. It returns `0' if they do match; otherwise, it returns
the nonzero value `FNM_NOMATCH'. The arguments PATTERN and STRING
are both strings.
The argument FLAGS is a combination of flag bits that alter the
details of matching. See below for a list of the defined flags.
In the GNU C Library, `fnmatch' might sometimes report "errors" by
returning nonzero values that are not equal to `FNM_NOMATCH'.
These are the available flags for the FLAGS argument:
`FNM_FILE_NAME'
Treat the `/' character specially, for matching file names. If
this flag is set, wildcard constructs in PATTERN cannot match `/'
in STRING. Thus, the only way to match `/' is with an explicit
`/' in PATTERN.
`FNM_PATHNAME'
This is an alias for `FNM_FILE_NAME'; it comes from POSIX.2. We
don't recommend this name because we don't use the term "pathname"
for file names.
`FNM_PERIOD'
Treat the `.' character specially if it appears at the beginning of
STRING. If this flag is set, wildcard constructs in PATTERN
cannot match `.' as the first character of STRING.
If you set both `FNM_PERIOD' and `FNM_FILE_NAME', then the special
treatment applies to `.' following `/' as well as to `.' at the
beginning of STRING. (The shell uses the `FNM_PERIOD' and
`FNM_FILE_NAME' flags together for matching file names.)
`FNM_NOESCAPE'
Don't treat the `\' character specially in patterns. Normally,
`\' quotes the following character, turning off its special meaning
(if any) so that it matches only itself. When quoting is enabled,
the pattern `\?' matches only the string `?', because the question
mark in the pattern acts like an ordinary character.
If you use `FNM_NOESCAPE', then `\' is an ordinary character.
`FNM_LEADING_DIR'
Ignore a trailing sequence of characters starting with a `/' in
STRING; that is to say, test whether STRING starts with a
directory name that PATTERN matches.
If this flag is set, either `foo*' or `foobar' as a pattern would
match the string `foobar/frobozz'.
`FNM_CASEFOLD'
Ignore case in comparing STRING to PATTERN.
`FNM_EXTMATCH'
Recognize beside the normal patterns also the extended patterns
introduced in `ksh'. The patterns are written in the form
explained in the following table where PATTERN-LIST is a `|'
separated list of patterns.
`?(PATTERN-LIST)'
The pattern matches if zero or one occurrences of any of the
patterns in the PATTERN-LIST allow matching the input string.
`*(PATTERN-LIST)'
The pattern matches if zero or more occurrences of any of the
patterns in the PATTERN-LIST allow matching the input string.
`+(PATTERN-LIST)'
The pattern matches if one or more occurrences of any of the
patterns in the PATTERN-LIST allow matching the input string.
`@(PATTERN-LIST)'
The pattern matches if exactly one occurrence of any of the
patterns in the PATTERN-LIST allows matching the input string.
`!(PATTERN-LIST)'
The pattern matches if the input string cannot be matched
with any of the patterns in the PATTERN-LIST.

File: libc.info, Node: Globbing, Next: Regular Expressions, Prev: Wildcard Matching, Up: Pattern Matching
10.2 Globbing
=============
The archetypal use of wildcards is for matching against the files in a
directory, and making a list of all the matches. This is called
"globbing".
You could do this using `fnmatch', by reading the directory entries
one by one and testing each one with `fnmatch'. But that would be slow
(and complex, since you would have to handle subdirectories by hand).
The library provides a function `glob' to make this particular use
of wildcards convenient. `glob' and the other symbols in this section
are declared in `glob.h'.
* Menu:
* Calling Glob:: Basic use of `glob'.
* Flags for Globbing:: Flags that enable various options in `glob'.
* More Flags for Globbing:: GNU specific extensions to `glob'.

File: libc.info, Node: Calling Glob, Next: Flags for Globbing, Up: Globbing
10.2.1 Calling `glob'
---------------------
The result of globbing is a vector of file names (strings). To return
this vector, `glob' uses a special data type, `glob_t', which is a
structure. You pass `glob' the address of the structure, and it fills
in the structure's fields to tell you about the results.
-- Data Type: glob_t
This data type holds a pointer to a word vector. More precisely,
it records both the address of the word vector and its size. The
GNU implementation contains some more fields which are non-standard
extensions.
`gl_pathc'
The number of elements in the vector, excluding the initial
null entries if the GLOB_DOOFFS flag is used (see gl_offs
below).
`gl_pathv'
The address of the vector. This field has type `char **'.
`gl_offs'
The offset of the first real element of the vector, from its
nominal address in the `gl_pathv' field. Unlike the other
fields, this is always an input to `glob', rather than an
output from it.
If you use a nonzero offset, then that many elements at the
beginning of the vector are left empty. (The `glob' function
fills them with null pointers.)
The `gl_offs' field is meaningful only if you use the
`GLOB_DOOFFS' flag. Otherwise, the offset is always zero
regardless of what is in this field, and the first real
element comes at the beginning of the vector.
`gl_closedir'
The address of an alternative implementation of the `closedir'
function. It is used if the `GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC' bit is set in
the flag parameter. The type of this field is
`void (*) (void *)'.
This is a GNU extension.
`gl_readdir'
The address of an alternative implementation of the `readdir'
function used to read the contents of a directory. It is
used if the `GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC' bit is set in the flag
parameter. The type of this field is
`struct dirent *(*) (void *)'.
This is a GNU extension.
`gl_opendir'
The address of an alternative implementation of the `opendir'
function. It is used if the `GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC' bit is set in
the flag parameter. The type of this field is
`void *(*) (const char *)'.
This is a GNU extension.
`gl_stat'
The address of an alternative implementation of the `stat'
function to get information about an object in the
filesystem. It is used if the `GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC' bit is set
in the flag parameter. The type of this field is
`int (*) (const char *, struct stat *)'.
This is a GNU extension.
`gl_lstat'
The address of an alternative implementation of the `lstat'
function to get information about an object in the
filesystems, not following symbolic links. It is used if the
`GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC' bit is set in the flag parameter. The type
of this field is `int (*) (const char *, struct stat *)'.
This is a GNU extension.
`gl_flags'
The flags used when `glob' was called. In addition,
`GLOB_MAGCHAR' might be set. See *note Flags for Globbing::
for more details.
This is a GNU extension.
For use in the `glob64' function `glob.h' contains another
definition for a very similar type. `glob64_t' differs from `glob_t'
only in the types of the members `gl_readdir', `gl_stat', and
`gl_lstat'.
-- Data Type: glob64_t
This data type holds a pointer to a word vector. More precisely,
it records both the address of the word vector and its size. The
GNU implementation contains some more fields which are non-standard
extensions.
`gl_pathc'
The number of elements in the vector, excluding the initial
null entries if the GLOB_DOOFFS flag is used (see gl_offs
below).
`gl_pathv'
The address of the vector. This field has type `char **'.
`gl_offs'
The offset of the first real element of the vector, from its
nominal address in the `gl_pathv' field. Unlike the other
fields, this is always an input to `glob', rather than an
output from it.
If you use a nonzero offset, then that many elements at the
beginning of the vector are left empty. (The `glob' function
fills them with null pointers.)
The `gl_offs' field is meaningful only if you use the
`GLOB_DOOFFS' flag. Otherwise, the offset is always zero
regardless of what is in this field, and the first real
element comes at the beginning of the vector.
`gl_closedir'
The address of an alternative implementation of the `closedir'
function. It is used if the `GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC' bit is set in
the flag parameter. The type of this field is
`void (*) (void *)'.
This is a GNU extension.
`gl_readdir'
The address of an alternative implementation of the
`readdir64' function used to read the contents of a
directory. It is used if the `GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC' bit is set in
the flag parameter. The type of this field is
`struct dirent64 *(*) (void *)'.
This is a GNU extension.
`gl_opendir'
The address of an alternative implementation of the `opendir'
function. It is used if the `GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC' bit is set in
the flag parameter. The type of this field is
`void *(*) (const char *)'.
This is a GNU extension.
`gl_stat'
The address of an alternative implementation of the `stat64'
function to get information about an object in the
filesystem. It is used if the `GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC' bit is set
in the flag parameter. The type of this field is
`int (*) (const char *, struct stat64 *)'.
This is a GNU extension.
`gl_lstat'
The address of an alternative implementation of the `lstat64'
function to get information about an object in the
filesystems, not following symbolic links. It is used if the
`GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC' bit is set in the flag parameter. The type
of this field is `int (*) (const char *, struct stat64 *)'.
This is a GNU extension.
`gl_flags'
The flags used when `glob' was called. In addition,
`GLOB_MAGCHAR' might be set. See *note Flags for Globbing::
for more details.
This is a GNU extension.
-- Function: int glob (const char *PATTERN, int FLAGS, int (*ERRFUNC)
(const char *FILENAME, int ERROR-CODE), glob_t *VECTOR-PTR)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:utent env sig:ALRM timer locale |
AS-Unsafe dlopen plugin corrupt heap lock | AC-Unsafe corrupt lock
fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The function `glob' does globbing using the pattern PATTERN in the
current directory. It puts the result in a newly allocated
vector, and stores the size and address of this vector into
`*VECTOR-PTR'. The argument FLAGS is a combination of bit flags;
see *note Flags for Globbing::, for details of the flags.
The result of globbing is a sequence of file names. The function
`glob' allocates a string for each resulting word, then allocates
a vector of type `char **' to store the addresses of these
strings. The last element of the vector is a null pointer. This
vector is called the "word vector".
To return this vector, `glob' stores both its address and its
length (number of elements, not counting the terminating null
pointer) into `*VECTOR-PTR'.
Normally, `glob' sorts the file names alphabetically before
returning them. You can turn this off with the flag `GLOB_NOSORT'
if you want to get the information as fast as possible. Usually
it's a good idea to let `glob' sort them--if you process the files
in alphabetical order, the users will have a feel for the rate of
progress that your application is making.
If `glob' succeeds, it returns 0. Otherwise, it returns one of
these error codes:
`GLOB_ABORTED'
There was an error opening a directory, and you used the flag
`GLOB_ERR' or your specified ERRFUNC returned a nonzero value.
*Note Flags for Globbing::, for an explanation of the
`GLOB_ERR' flag and ERRFUNC.
`GLOB_NOMATCH'
The pattern didn't match any existing files. If you use the
`GLOB_NOCHECK' flag, then you never get this error code,
because that flag tells `glob' to _pretend_ that the pattern
matched at least one file.
`GLOB_NOSPACE'
It was impossible to allocate memory to hold the result.
In the event of an error, `glob' stores information in
`*VECTOR-PTR' about all the matches it has found so far.
It is important to notice that the `glob' function will not fail if
it encounters directories or files which cannot be handled without
the LFS interfaces. The implementation of `glob' is supposed to
use these functions internally. This at least is the assumptions
made by the Unix standard. The GNU extension of allowing the user
to provide own directory handling and `stat' functions complicates
things a bit. If these callback functions are used and a large
file or directory is encountered `glob' _can_ fail.
-- Function: int glob64 (const char *PATTERN, int FLAGS, int
(*ERRFUNC) (const char *FILENAME, int ERROR-CODE), glob64_t
*VECTOR-PTR)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:utent env sig:ALRM timer locale |
AS-Unsafe dlopen corrupt heap lock | AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `glob64' function was added as part of the Large File Summit
extensions but is not part of the original LFS proposal. The
reason for this is simple: it is not necessary. The necessity for
a `glob64' function is added by the extensions of the GNU `glob'
implementation which allows the user to provide own directory
handling and `stat' functions. The `readdir' and `stat' functions
do depend on the choice of `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS' since the definition
of the types `struct dirent' and `struct stat' will change
depending on the choice.
Beside this difference the `glob64' works just like `glob' in all
aspects.
This function is a GNU extension.

File: libc.info, Node: Flags for Globbing, Next: More Flags for Globbing, Prev: Calling Glob, Up: Globbing
10.2.2 Flags for Globbing
-------------------------
This section describes the standard flags that you can specify in the
FLAGS argument to `glob'. Choose the flags you want, and combine them
with the C bitwise OR operator `|'.
Note that there are *note More Flags for Globbing:: available as GNU
extensions.
`GLOB_APPEND'
Append the words from this expansion to the vector of words
produced by previous calls to `glob'. This way you can
effectively expand several words as if they were concatenated with
spaces between them.
In order for appending to work, you must not modify the contents
of the word vector structure between calls to `glob'. And, if you
set `GLOB_DOOFFS' in the first call to `glob', you must also set
it when you append to the results.
Note that the pointer stored in `gl_pathv' may no longer be valid
after you call `glob' the second time, because `glob' might have
relocated the vector. So always fetch `gl_pathv' from the
`glob_t' structure after each `glob' call; *never* save the
pointer across calls.
`GLOB_DOOFFS'
Leave blank slots at the beginning of the vector of words. The
`gl_offs' field says how many slots to leave. The blank slots
contain null pointers.
`GLOB_ERR'
Give up right away and report an error if there is any difficulty
reading the directories that must be read in order to expand
PATTERN fully. Such difficulties might include a directory in
which you don't have the requisite access. Normally, `glob' tries
its best to keep on going despite any errors, reading whatever
directories it can.
You can exercise even more control than this by specifying an
error-handler function ERRFUNC when you call `glob'. If ERRFUNC
is not a null pointer, then `glob' doesn't give up right away when
it can't read a directory; instead, it calls ERRFUNC with two
arguments, like this:
(*ERRFUNC) (FILENAME, ERROR-CODE)
The argument FILENAME is the name of the directory that `glob'
couldn't open or couldn't read, and ERROR-CODE is the `errno'
value that was reported to `glob'.
If the error handler function returns nonzero, then `glob' gives up
right away. Otherwise, it continues.
`GLOB_MARK'
If the pattern matches the name of a directory, append `/' to the
directory's name when returning it.
`GLOB_NOCHECK'
If the pattern doesn't match any file names, return the pattern
itself as if it were a file name that had been matched.
(Normally, when the pattern doesn't match anything, `glob' returns
that there were no matches.)
`GLOB_NOESCAPE'
Don't treat the `\' character specially in patterns. Normally,
`\' quotes the following character, turning off its special meaning
(if any) so that it matches only itself. When quoting is enabled,
the pattern `\?' matches only the string `?', because the question
mark in the pattern acts like an ordinary character.
If you use `GLOB_NOESCAPE', then `\' is an ordinary character.
`glob' does its work by calling the function `fnmatch' repeatedly.
It handles the flag `GLOB_NOESCAPE' by turning on the
`FNM_NOESCAPE' flag in calls to `fnmatch'.
`GLOB_NOSORT'
Don't sort the file names; return them in no particular order.
(In practice, the order will depend on the order of the entries in
the directory.) The only reason _not_ to sort is to save time.

File: libc.info, Node: More Flags for Globbing, Prev: Flags for Globbing, Up: Globbing
10.2.3 More Flags for Globbing
------------------------------
Beside the flags described in the last section, the GNU implementation
of `glob' allows a few more flags which are also defined in the
`glob.h' file. Some of the extensions implement functionality which is
available in modern shell implementations.
`GLOB_PERIOD'
The `.' character (period) is treated special. It cannot be
matched by wildcards. *Note Wildcard Matching::, `FNM_PERIOD'.
`GLOB_MAGCHAR'
The `GLOB_MAGCHAR' value is not to be given to `glob' in the FLAGS
parameter. Instead, `glob' sets this bit in the GL_FLAGS element
of the GLOB_T structure provided as the result if the pattern used
for matching contains any wildcard character.
`GLOB_ALTDIRFUNC'
Instead of the using the using the normal functions for accessing
the filesystem the `glob' implementation uses the user-supplied
functions specified in the structure pointed to by PGLOB
parameter. For more information about the functions refer to the
sections about directory handling see *note Accessing
Directories::, and *note Reading Attributes::.
`GLOB_BRACE'
If this flag is given the handling of braces in the pattern is
changed. It is now required that braces appear correctly grouped.
I.e., for each opening brace there must be a closing one. Braces
can be used recursively. So it is possible to define one brace
expression in another one. It is important to note that the range
of each brace expression is completely contained in the outer
brace expression (if there is one).
The string between the matching braces is separated into single
expressions by splitting at `,' (comma) characters. The commas
themselves are discarded. Please note what we said above about
recursive brace expressions. The commas used to separate the
subexpressions must be at the same level. Commas in brace
subexpressions are not matched. They are used during expansion of
the brace expression of the deeper level. The example below shows
this
glob ("{foo/{,bar,biz},baz}", GLOB_BRACE, NULL, &result)
is equivalent to the sequence
glob ("foo/", GLOB_BRACE, NULL, &result)
glob ("foo/bar", GLOB_BRACE|GLOB_APPEND, NULL, &result)
glob ("foo/biz", GLOB_BRACE|GLOB_APPEND, NULL, &result)
glob ("baz", GLOB_BRACE|GLOB_APPEND, NULL, &result)
if we leave aside error handling.
`GLOB_NOMAGIC'
If the pattern contains no wildcard constructs (it is a literal
file name), return it as the sole "matching" word, even if no file
exists by that name.
`GLOB_TILDE'
If this flag is used the character `~' (tilde) is handled special
if it appears at the beginning of the pattern. Instead of being
taken verbatim it is used to represent the home directory of a
known user.
If `~' is the only character in pattern or it is followed by a `/'
(slash), the home directory of the process owner is substituted.
Using `getlogin' and `getpwnam' the information is read from the
system databases. As an example take user `bart' with his home
directory at `/home/bart'. For him a call like
glob ("~/bin/*", GLOB_TILDE, NULL, &result)
would return the contents of the directory `/home/bart/bin'.
Instead of referring to the own home directory it is also possible
to name the home directory of other users. To do so one has to
append the user name after the tilde character. So the contents
of user `homer''s `bin' directory can be retrieved by
glob ("~homer/bin/*", GLOB_TILDE, NULL, &result)
If the user name is not valid or the home directory cannot be
determined for some reason the pattern is left untouched and
itself used as the result. I.e., if in the last example `home' is
not available the tilde expansion yields to `"~homer/bin/*"' and
`glob' is not looking for a directory named `~homer'.
This functionality is equivalent to what is available in C-shells
if the `nonomatch' flag is set.
`GLOB_TILDE_CHECK'
If this flag is used `glob' behaves like as if `GLOB_TILDE' is
given. The only difference is that if the user name is not
available or the home directory cannot be determined for other
reasons this leads to an error. `glob' will return `GLOB_NOMATCH'
instead of using the pattern itself as the name.
This functionality is equivalent to what is available in C-shells
if `nonomatch' flag is not set.
`GLOB_ONLYDIR'
If this flag is used the globbing function takes this as a *hint*
that the caller is only interested in directories matching the
pattern. If the information about the type of the file is easily
available non-directories will be rejected but no extra work will
be done to determine the information for each file. I.e., the
caller must still be able to filter directories out.
This functionality is only available with the GNU `glob'
implementation. It is mainly used internally to increase the
performance but might be useful for a user as well and therefore is
documented here.
Calling `glob' will in most cases allocate resources which are used
to represent the result of the function call. If the same object of
type `glob_t' is used in multiple call to `glob' the resources are
freed or reused so that no leaks appear. But this does not include the
time when all `glob' calls are done.
-- Function: void globfree (glob_t *PGLOB)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap | AC-Unsafe
corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `globfree' function frees all resources allocated by previous
calls to `glob' associated with the object pointed to by PGLOB.
This function should be called whenever the currently used
`glob_t' typed object isn't used anymore.
-- Function: void globfree64 (glob64_t *PGLOB)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt lock | AC-Unsafe
corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function is equivalent to `globfree' but it frees records of
type `glob64_t' which were allocated by `glob64'.

File: libc.info, Node: Regular Expressions, Next: Word Expansion, Prev: Globbing, Up: Pattern Matching
10.3 Regular Expression Matching
================================
The GNU C Library supports two interfaces for matching regular
expressions. One is the standard POSIX.2 interface, and the other is
what the GNU C Library has had for many years.
Both interfaces are declared in the header file `regex.h'. If you
define `_POSIX_C_SOURCE', then only the POSIX.2 functions, structures,
and constants are declared.
* Menu:
* POSIX Regexp Compilation:: Using `regcomp' to prepare to match.
* Flags for POSIX Regexps:: Syntax variations for `regcomp'.
* Matching POSIX Regexps:: Using `regexec' to match the compiled
pattern that you get from `regcomp'.
* Regexp Subexpressions:: Finding which parts of the string were matched.
* Subexpression Complications:: Find points of which parts were matched.
* Regexp Cleanup:: Freeing storage; reporting errors.

File: libc.info, Node: POSIX Regexp Compilation, Next: Flags for POSIX Regexps, Up: Regular Expressions
10.3.1 POSIX Regular Expression Compilation
-------------------------------------------
Before you can actually match a regular expression, you must "compile"
it. This is not true compilation--it produces a special data
structure, not machine instructions. But it is like ordinary
compilation in that its purpose is to enable you to "execute" the
pattern fast. (*Note Matching POSIX Regexps::, for how to use the
compiled regular expression for matching.)
There is a special data type for compiled regular expressions:
-- Data Type: regex_t
This type of object holds a compiled regular expression. It is
actually a structure. It has just one field that your programs
should look at:
`re_nsub'
This field holds the number of parenthetical subexpressions
in the regular expression that was compiled.
There are several other fields, but we don't describe them here,
because only the functions in the library should use them.
After you create a `regex_t' object, you can compile a regular
expression into it by calling `regcomp'.
-- Function: int regcomp (regex_t *restrict COMPILED, const char
*restrict PATTERN, int CFLAGS)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen
| AC-Unsafe corrupt lock mem fd | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The function `regcomp' "compiles" a regular expression into a data
structure that you can use with `regexec' to match against a
string. The compiled regular expression format is designed for
efficient matching. `regcomp' stores it into `*COMPILED'.
It's up to you to allocate an object of type `regex_t' and pass its
address to `regcomp'.
The argument CFLAGS lets you specify various options that control
the syntax and semantics of regular expressions. *Note Flags for
POSIX Regexps::.
If you use the flag `REG_NOSUB', then `regcomp' omits from the
compiled regular expression the information necessary to record
how subexpressions actually match. In this case, you might as well
pass `0' for the MATCHPTR and NMATCH arguments when you call
`regexec'.
If you don't use `REG_NOSUB', then the compiled regular expression
does have the capacity to record how subexpressions match. Also,
`regcomp' tells you how many subexpressions PATTERN has, by
storing the number in `COMPILED->re_nsub'. You can use that value
to decide how long an array to allocate to hold information about
subexpression matches.
`regcomp' returns `0' if it succeeds in compiling the regular
expression; otherwise, it returns a nonzero error code (see the
table below). You can use `regerror' to produce an error message
string describing the reason for a nonzero value; see *note Regexp
Cleanup::.
Here are the possible nonzero values that `regcomp' can return:
`REG_BADBR'
There was an invalid `\{...\}' construct in the regular
expression. A valid `\{...\}' construct must contain either a
single number, or two numbers in increasing order separated by a
comma.
`REG_BADPAT'
There was a syntax error in the regular expression.
`REG_BADRPT'
A repetition operator such as `?' or `*' appeared in a bad
position (with no preceding subexpression to act on).
`REG_ECOLLATE'
The regular expression referred to an invalid collating element
(one not defined in the current locale for string collation).
*Note Locale Categories::.
`REG_ECTYPE'
The regular expression referred to an invalid character class name.
`REG_EESCAPE'
The regular expression ended with `\'.
`REG_ESUBREG'
There was an invalid number in the `\DIGIT' construct.
`REG_EBRACK'
There were unbalanced square brackets in the regular expression.
`REG_EPAREN'
An extended regular expression had unbalanced parentheses, or a
basic regular expression had unbalanced `\(' and `\)'.
`REG_EBRACE'
The regular expression had unbalanced `\{' and `\}'.
`REG_ERANGE'
One of the endpoints in a range expression was invalid.
`REG_ESPACE'
`regcomp' ran out of memory.

File: libc.info, Node: Flags for POSIX Regexps, Next: Matching POSIX Regexps, Prev: POSIX Regexp Compilation, Up: Regular Expressions
10.3.2 Flags for POSIX Regular Expressions
------------------------------------------
These are the bit flags that you can use in the CFLAGS operand when
compiling a regular expression with `regcomp'.
`REG_EXTENDED'
Treat the pattern as an extended regular expression, rather than
as a basic regular expression.
`REG_ICASE'
Ignore case when matching letters.
`REG_NOSUB'
Don't bother storing the contents of the MATCHES-PTR array.
`REG_NEWLINE'
Treat a newline in STRING as dividing STRING into multiple lines,
so that `$' can match before the newline and `^' can match after.
Also, don't permit `.' to match a newline, and don't permit
`[^...]' to match a newline.
Otherwise, newline acts like any other ordinary character.

File: libc.info, Node: Matching POSIX Regexps, Next: Regexp Subexpressions, Prev: Flags for POSIX Regexps, Up: Regular Expressions
10.3.3 Matching a Compiled POSIX Regular Expression
---------------------------------------------------
Once you have compiled a regular expression, as described in *note
POSIX Regexp Compilation::, you can match it against strings using
`regexec'. A match anywhere inside the string counts as success,
unless the regular expression contains anchor characters (`^' or `$').
-- Function: int regexec (const regex_t *restrict COMPILED, const char
*restrict STRING, size_t NMATCH, regmatch_t
MATCHPTR[restrict], int EFLAGS)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen
| AC-Unsafe corrupt lock mem fd | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function tries to match the compiled regular expression
`*COMPILED' against STRING.
`regexec' returns `0' if the regular expression matches;
otherwise, it returns a nonzero value. See the table below for
what nonzero values mean. You can use `regerror' to produce an
error message string describing the reason for a nonzero value;
see *note Regexp Cleanup::.
The argument EFLAGS is a word of bit flags that enable various
options.
If you want to get information about what part of STRING actually
matched the regular expression or its subexpressions, use the
arguments MATCHPTR and NMATCH. Otherwise, pass `0' for NMATCH,
and `NULL' for MATCHPTR. *Note Regexp Subexpressions::.
You must match the regular expression with the same set of current
locales that were in effect when you compiled the regular expression.
The function `regexec' accepts the following flags in the EFLAGS
argument:
`REG_NOTBOL'
Do not regard the beginning of the specified string as the
beginning of a line; more generally, don't make any assumptions
about what text might precede it.
`REG_NOTEOL'
Do not regard the end of the specified string as the end of a
line; more generally, don't make any assumptions about what text
might follow it.
Here are the possible nonzero values that `regexec' can return:
`REG_NOMATCH'
The pattern didn't match the string. This isn't really an error.
`REG_ESPACE'
`regexec' ran out of memory.

File: libc.info, Node: Regexp Subexpressions, Next: Subexpression Complications, Prev: Matching POSIX Regexps, Up: Regular Expressions
10.3.4 Match Results with Subexpressions
----------------------------------------
When `regexec' matches parenthetical subexpressions of PATTERN, it
records which parts of STRING they match. It returns that information
by storing the offsets into an array whose elements are structures of
type `regmatch_t'. The first element of the array (index `0') records
the part of the string that matched the entire regular expression.
Each other element of the array records the beginning and end of the
part that matched a single parenthetical subexpression.
-- Data Type: regmatch_t
This is the data type of the MATCHARRAY array that you pass to
`regexec'. It contains two structure fields, as follows:
`rm_so'
The offset in STRING of the beginning of a substring. Add
this value to STRING to get the address of that part.
`rm_eo'
The offset in STRING of the end of the substring.
-- Data Type: regoff_t
`regoff_t' is an alias for another signed integer type. The
fields of `regmatch_t' have type `regoff_t'.
The `regmatch_t' elements correspond to subexpressions positionally;
the first element (index `1') records where the first subexpression
matched, the second element records the second subexpression, and so
on. The order of the subexpressions is the order in which they begin.
When you call `regexec', you specify how long the MATCHPTR array is,
with the NMATCH argument. This tells `regexec' how many elements to
store. If the actual regular expression has more than NMATCH
subexpressions, then you won't get offset information about the rest of
them. But this doesn't alter whether the pattern matches a particular
string or not.
If you don't want `regexec' to return any information about where
the subexpressions matched, you can either supply `0' for NMATCH, or
use the flag `REG_NOSUB' when you compile the pattern with `regcomp'.

File: libc.info, Node: Subexpression Complications, Next: Regexp Cleanup, Prev: Regexp Subexpressions, Up: Regular Expressions
10.3.5 Complications in Subexpression Matching
----------------------------------------------
Sometimes a subexpression matches a substring of no characters. This
happens when `f\(o*\)' matches the string `fum'. (It really matches
just the `f'.) In this case, both of the offsets identify the point in
the string where the null substring was found. In this example, the
offsets are both `1'.
Sometimes the entire regular expression can match without using some
of its subexpressions at all--for example, when `ba\(na\)*' matches the
string `ba', the parenthetical subexpression is not used. When this
happens, `regexec' stores `-1' in both fields of the element for that
subexpression.
Sometimes matching the entire regular expression can match a
particular subexpression more than once--for example, when `ba\(na\)*'
matches the string `bananana', the parenthetical subexpression matches
three times. When this happens, `regexec' usually stores the offsets
of the last part of the string that matched the subexpression. In the
case of `bananana', these offsets are `6' and `8'.
But the last match is not always the one that is chosen. It's more
accurate to say that the last _opportunity_ to match is the one that
takes precedence. What this means is that when one subexpression
appears within another, then the results reported for the inner
subexpression reflect whatever happened on the last match of the outer
subexpression. For an example, consider `\(ba\(na\)*s \)*' matching
the string `bananas bas '. The last time the inner expression actually
matches is near the end of the first word. But it is _considered_
again in the second word, and fails to match there. `regexec' reports
nonuse of the "na" subexpression.
Another place where this rule applies is when the regular expression
\(ba\(na\)*s \|nefer\(ti\)* \)*
matches `bananas nefertiti'. The "na" subexpression does match in
the first word, but it doesn't match in the second word because the
other alternative is used there. Once again, the second repetition of
the outer subexpression overrides the first, and within that second
repetition, the "na" subexpression is not used. So `regexec' reports
nonuse of the "na" subexpression.

File: libc.info, Node: Regexp Cleanup, Prev: Subexpression Complications, Up: Regular Expressions
10.3.6 POSIX Regexp Matching Cleanup
------------------------------------
When you are finished using a compiled regular expression, you can free
the storage it uses by calling `regfree'.
-- Function: void regfree (regex_t *COMPILED)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem | *Note
POSIX Safety Concepts::.
Calling `regfree' frees all the storage that `*COMPILED' points
to. This includes various internal fields of the `regex_t'
structure that aren't documented in this manual.
`regfree' does not free the object `*COMPILED' itself.
You should always free the space in a `regex_t' structure with
`regfree' before using the structure to compile another regular
expression.
When `regcomp' or `regexec' reports an error, you can use the
function `regerror' to turn it into an error message string.
-- Function: size_t regerror (int ERRCODE, const regex_t *restrict
COMPILED, char *restrict BUFFER, size_t LENGTH)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe env | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap lock dlopen |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function produces an error message string for the error code
ERRCODE, and stores the string in LENGTH bytes of memory starting
at BUFFER. For the COMPILED argument, supply the same compiled
regular expression structure that `regcomp' or `regexec' was
working with when it got the error. Alternatively, you can supply
`NULL' for COMPILED; you will still get a meaningful error
message, but it might not be as detailed.
If the error message can't fit in LENGTH bytes (including a
terminating null character), then `regerror' truncates it. The
string that `regerror' stores is always null-terminated even if it
has been truncated.
The return value of `regerror' is the minimum length needed to
store the entire error message. If this is less than LENGTH, then
the error message was not truncated, and you can use it.
Otherwise, you should call `regerror' again with a larger buffer.
Here is a function which uses `regerror', but always dynamically
allocates a buffer for the error message:
char *get_regerror (int errcode, regex_t *compiled)
{
size_t length = regerror (errcode, compiled, NULL, 0);
char *buffer = xmalloc (length);
(void) regerror (errcode, compiled, buffer, length);
return buffer;
}

File: libc.info, Node: Word Expansion, Prev: Regular Expressions, Up: Pattern Matching
10.4 Shell-Style Word Expansion
===============================
"Word expansion" means the process of splitting a string into "words"
and substituting for variables, commands, and wildcards just as the
shell does.
For example, when you write `ls -l foo.c', this string is split into
three separate words--`ls', `-l' and `foo.c'. This is the most basic
function of word expansion.
When you write `ls *.c', this can become many words, because the
word `*.c' can be replaced with any number of file names. This is
called "wildcard expansion", and it is also a part of word expansion.
When you use `echo $PATH' to print your path, you are taking
advantage of "variable substitution", which is also part of word
expansion.
Ordinary programs can perform word expansion just like the shell by
calling the library function `wordexp'.
* Menu:
* Expansion Stages:: What word expansion does to a string.
* Calling Wordexp:: How to call `wordexp'.
* Flags for Wordexp:: Options you can enable in `wordexp'.
* Wordexp Example:: A sample program that does word expansion.
* Tilde Expansion:: Details of how tilde expansion works.
* Variable Substitution:: Different types of variable substitution.

File: libc.info, Node: Expansion Stages, Next: Calling Wordexp, Up: Word Expansion
10.4.1 The Stages of Word Expansion
-----------------------------------
When word expansion is applied to a sequence of words, it performs the
following transformations in the order shown here:
1. "Tilde expansion": Replacement of `~foo' with the name of the home
directory of `foo'.
2. Next, three different transformations are applied in the same step,
from left to right:
* "Variable substitution": Environment variables are
substituted for references such as `$foo'.
* "Command substitution": Constructs such as ``cat foo`' and
the equivalent `$(cat foo)' are replaced with the output from
the inner command.
* "Arithmetic expansion": Constructs such as `$(($x-1))' are
replaced with the result of the arithmetic computation.
3. "Field splitting": subdivision of the text into "words".
4. "Wildcard expansion": The replacement of a construct such as `*.c'
with a list of `.c' file names. Wildcard expansion applies to an
entire word at a time, and replaces that word with 0 or more file
names that are themselves words.
5. "Quote removal": The deletion of string-quotes, now that they have
done their job by inhibiting the above transformations when
appropriate.
For the details of these transformations, and how to write the
constructs that use them, see `The BASH Manual' (to appear).

File: libc.info, Node: Calling Wordexp, Next: Flags for Wordexp, Prev: Expansion Stages, Up: Word Expansion
10.4.2 Calling `wordexp'
------------------------
All the functions, constants and data types for word expansion are
declared in the header file `wordexp.h'.
Word expansion produces a vector of words (strings). To return this
vector, `wordexp' uses a special data type, `wordexp_t', which is a
structure. You pass `wordexp' the address of the structure, and it
fills in the structure's fields to tell you about the results.
-- Data Type: wordexp_t
This data type holds a pointer to a word vector. More precisely,
it records both the address of the word vector and its size.
`we_wordc'
The number of elements in the vector.
`we_wordv'
The address of the vector. This field has type `char **'.
`we_offs'
The offset of the first real element of the vector, from its
nominal address in the `we_wordv' field. Unlike the other
fields, this is always an input to `wordexp', rather than an
output from it.
If you use a nonzero offset, then that many elements at the
beginning of the vector are left empty. (The `wordexp'
function fills them with null pointers.)
The `we_offs' field is meaningful only if you use the
`WRDE_DOOFFS' flag. Otherwise, the offset is always zero
regardless of what is in this field, and the first real
element comes at the beginning of the vector.
-- Function: int wordexp (const char *WORDS, wordexp_t
*WORD-VECTOR-PTR, int FLAGS)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:utent const:env env sig:ALRM timer
locale | AS-Unsafe dlopen plugin i18n heap corrupt lock |
AC-Unsafe corrupt lock fd mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
Perform word expansion on the string WORDS, putting the result in
a newly allocated vector, and store the size and address of this
vector into `*WORD-VECTOR-PTR'. The argument FLAGS is a
combination of bit flags; see *note Flags for Wordexp::, for
details of the flags.
You shouldn't use any of the characters `|&;<>' in the string
WORDS unless they are quoted; likewise for newline. If you use
these characters unquoted, you will get the `WRDE_BADCHAR' error
code. Don't use parentheses or braces unless they are quoted or
part of a word expansion construct. If you use quotation
characters `'"`', they should come in pairs that balance.
The results of word expansion are a sequence of words. The
function `wordexp' allocates a string for each resulting word, then
allocates a vector of type `char **' to store the addresses of
these strings. The last element of the vector is a null pointer.
This vector is called the "word vector".
To return this vector, `wordexp' stores both its address and its
length (number of elements, not counting the terminating null
pointer) into `*WORD-VECTOR-PTR'.
If `wordexp' succeeds, it returns 0. Otherwise, it returns one of
these error codes:
`WRDE_BADCHAR'
The input string WORDS contains an unquoted invalid character
such as `|'.
`WRDE_BADVAL'
The input string refers to an undefined shell variable, and
you used the flag `WRDE_UNDEF' to forbid such references.
`WRDE_CMDSUB'
The input string uses command substitution, and you used the
flag `WRDE_NOCMD' to forbid command substitution.
`WRDE_NOSPACE'
It was impossible to allocate memory to hold the result. In
this case, `wordexp' can store part of the results--as much
as it could allocate room for.
`WRDE_SYNTAX'
There was a syntax error in the input string. For example,
an unmatched quoting character is a syntax error.
-- Function: void wordfree (wordexp_t *WORD-VECTOR-PTR)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap | AC-Unsafe
corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
Free the storage used for the word-strings and vector that
`*WORD-VECTOR-PTR' points to. This does not free the structure
`*WORD-VECTOR-PTR' itself--only the other data it points to.

File: libc.info, Node: Flags for Wordexp, Next: Wordexp Example, Prev: Calling Wordexp, Up: Word Expansion
10.4.3 Flags for Word Expansion
-------------------------------
This section describes the flags that you can specify in the FLAGS
argument to `wordexp'. Choose the flags you want, and combine them
with the C operator `|'.
`WRDE_APPEND'
Append the words from this expansion to the vector of words
produced by previous calls to `wordexp'. This way you can
effectively expand several words as if they were concatenated with
spaces between them.
In order for appending to work, you must not modify the contents
of the word vector structure between calls to `wordexp'. And, if
you set `WRDE_DOOFFS' in the first call to `wordexp', you must also
set it when you append to the results.
`WRDE_DOOFFS'
Leave blank slots at the beginning of the vector of words. The
`we_offs' field says how many slots to leave. The blank slots
contain null pointers.
`WRDE_NOCMD'
Don't do command substitution; if the input requests command
substitution, report an error.
`WRDE_REUSE'
Reuse a word vector made by a previous call to `wordexp'. Instead
of allocating a new vector of words, this call to `wordexp' will
use the vector that already exists (making it larger if necessary).
Note that the vector may move, so it is not safe to save an old
pointer and use it again after calling `wordexp'. You must fetch
`we_pathv' anew after each call.
`WRDE_SHOWERR'
Do show any error messages printed by commands run by command
substitution. More precisely, allow these commands to inherit the
standard error output stream of the current process. By default,
`wordexp' gives these commands a standard error stream that
discards all output.
`WRDE_UNDEF'
If the input refers to a shell variable that is not defined,
report an error.

File: libc.info, Node: Wordexp Example, Next: Tilde Expansion, Prev: Flags for Wordexp, Up: Word Expansion
10.4.4 `wordexp' Example
------------------------
Here is an example of using `wordexp' to expand several strings and use
the results to run a shell command. It also shows the use of
`WRDE_APPEND' to concatenate the expansions and of `wordfree' to free
the space allocated by `wordexp'.
int
expand_and_execute (const char *program, const char **options)
{
wordexp_t result;
pid_t pid
int status, i;
/* Expand the string for the program to run. */
switch (wordexp (program, &result, 0))
{
case 0: /* Successful. */
break;
case WRDE_NOSPACE:
/* If the error was `WRDE_NOSPACE',
then perhaps part of the result was allocated. */
wordfree (&result);
default: /* Some other error. */
return -1;
}
/* Expand the strings specified for the arguments. */
for (i = 0; options[i] != NULL; i++)
{
if (wordexp (options[i], &result, WRDE_APPEND))
{
wordfree (&result);
return -1;
}
}
pid = fork ();
if (pid == 0)
{
/* This is the child process. Execute the command. */
execv (result.we_wordv[0], result.we_wordv);
exit (EXIT_FAILURE);
}
else if (pid < 0)
/* The fork failed. Report failure. */
status = -1;
else
/* This is the parent process. Wait for the child to complete. */
if (waitpid (pid, &status, 0) != pid)
status = -1;
wordfree (&result);
return status;
}

File: libc.info, Node: Tilde Expansion, Next: Variable Substitution, Prev: Wordexp Example, Up: Word Expansion
10.4.5 Details of Tilde Expansion
---------------------------------
It's a standard part of shell syntax that you can use `~' at the
beginning of a file name to stand for your own home directory. You can
use `~USER' to stand for USER's home directory.
"Tilde expansion" is the process of converting these abbreviations
to the directory names that they stand for.
Tilde expansion applies to the `~' plus all following characters up
to whitespace or a slash. It takes place only at the beginning of a
word, and only if none of the characters to be transformed is quoted in
any way.
Plain `~' uses the value of the environment variable `HOME' as the
proper home directory name. `~' followed by a user name uses
`getpwname' to look up that user in the user database, and uses
whatever directory is recorded there. Thus, `~' followed by your own
name can give different results from plain `~', if the value of `HOME'
is not really your home directory.

File: libc.info, Node: Variable Substitution, Prev: Tilde Expansion, Up: Word Expansion
10.4.6 Details of Variable Substitution
---------------------------------------
Part of ordinary shell syntax is the use of `$VARIABLE' to substitute
the value of a shell variable into a command. This is called "variable
substitution", and it is one part of doing word expansion.
There are two basic ways you can write a variable reference for
substitution:
`${VARIABLE}'
If you write braces around the variable name, then it is completely
unambiguous where the variable name ends. You can concatenate
additional letters onto the end of the variable value by writing
them immediately after the close brace. For example, `${foo}s'
expands into `tractors'.
`$VARIABLE'
If you do not put braces around the variable name, then the
variable name consists of all the alphanumeric characters and
underscores that follow the `$'. The next punctuation character
ends the variable name. Thus, `$foo-bar' refers to the variable
`foo' and expands into `tractor-bar'.
When you use braces, you can also use various constructs to modify
the value that is substituted, or test it in various ways.
`${VARIABLE:-DEFAULT}'
Substitute the value of VARIABLE, but if that is empty or
undefined, use DEFAULT instead.
`${VARIABLE:=DEFAULT}'
Substitute the value of VARIABLE, but if that is empty or
undefined, use DEFAULT instead and set the variable to DEFAULT.
`${VARIABLE:?MESSAGE}'
If VARIABLE is defined and not empty, substitute its value.
Otherwise, print MESSAGE as an error message on the standard error
stream, and consider word expansion a failure.
`${VARIABLE:+REPLACEMENT}'
Substitute REPLACEMENT, but only if VARIABLE is defined and
nonempty. Otherwise, substitute nothing for this construct.
`${#VARIABLE}'
Substitute a numeral which expresses in base ten the number of
characters in the value of VARIABLE. `${#foo}' stands for `7',
because `tractor' is seven characters.
These variants of variable substitution let you remove part of the
variable's value before substituting it. The PREFIX and SUFFIX are not
mere strings; they are wildcard patterns, just like the patterns that
you use to match multiple file names. But in this context, they match
against parts of the variable value rather than against file names.
`${VARIABLE%%SUFFIX}'
Substitute the value of VARIABLE, but first discard from that
variable any portion at the end that matches the pattern SUFFIX.
If there is more than one alternative for how to match against
SUFFIX, this construct uses the longest possible match.
Thus, `${foo%%r*}' substitutes `t', because the largest match for
`r*' at the end of `tractor' is `ractor'.
`${VARIABLE%SUFFIX}'
Substitute the value of VARIABLE, but first discard from that
variable any portion at the end that matches the pattern SUFFIX.
If there is more than one alternative for how to match against
SUFFIX, this construct uses the shortest possible alternative.
Thus, `${foo%r*}' substitutes `tracto', because the shortest match
for `r*' at the end of `tractor' is just `r'.
`${VARIABLE##PREFIX}'
Substitute the value of VARIABLE, but first discard from that
variable any portion at the beginning that matches the pattern
PREFIX.
If there is more than one alternative for how to match against
PREFIX, this construct uses the longest possible match.
Thus, `${foo##*t}' substitutes `or', because the largest match for
`*t' at the beginning of `tractor' is `tract'.
`${VARIABLE#PREFIX}'
Substitute the value of VARIABLE, but first discard from that
variable any portion at the beginning that matches the pattern
PREFIX.
If there is more than one alternative for how to match against
PREFIX, this construct uses the shortest possible alternative.
Thus, `${foo#*t}' substitutes `ractor', because the shortest match
for `*t' at the beginning of `tractor' is just `t'.

File: libc.info, Node: I/O Overview, Next: I/O on Streams, Prev: Pattern Matching, Up: Top
11 Input/Output Overview
************************
Most programs need to do either input (reading data) or output (writing
data), or most frequently both, in order to do anything useful. The
GNU C Library provides such a large selection of input and output
functions that the hardest part is often deciding which function is most
appropriate!
This chapter introduces concepts and terminology relating to input
and output. Other chapters relating to the GNU I/O facilities are:
* *note I/O on Streams::, which covers the high-level functions that
operate on streams, including formatted input and output.
* *note Low-Level I/O::, which covers the basic I/O and control
functions on file descriptors.
* *note File System Interface::, which covers functions for
operating on directories and for manipulating file attributes such
as access modes and ownership.
* *note Pipes and FIFOs::, which includes information on the basic
interprocess communication facilities.
* *note Sockets::, which covers a more complicated interprocess
communication facility with support for networking.
* *note Low-Level Terminal Interface::, which covers functions for
changing how input and output to terminals or other serial devices
are processed.
* Menu:
* I/O Concepts:: Some basic information and terminology.
* File Names:: How to refer to a file.

File: libc.info, Node: I/O Concepts, Next: File Names, Up: I/O Overview
11.1 Input/Output Concepts
==========================
Before you can read or write the contents of a file, you must establish
a connection or communications channel to the file. This process is
called "opening" the file. You can open a file for reading, writing,
or both.
The connection to an open file is represented either as a stream or
as a file descriptor. You pass this as an argument to the functions
that do the actual read or write operations, to tell them which file to
operate on. Certain functions expect streams, and others are designed
to operate on file descriptors.
When you have finished reading to or writing from the file, you can
terminate the connection by "closing" the file. Once you have closed a
stream or file descriptor, you cannot do any more input or output
operations on it.
* Menu:
* Streams and File Descriptors:: The GNU C Library provides two ways
to access the contents of files.
* File Position:: The number of bytes from the
beginning of the file.

File: libc.info, Node: Streams and File Descriptors, Next: File Position, Up: I/O Concepts
11.1.1 Streams and File Descriptors
-----------------------------------
When you want to do input or output to a file, you have a choice of two
basic mechanisms for representing the connection between your program
and the file: file descriptors and streams. File descriptors are
represented as objects of type `int', while streams are represented as
`FILE *' objects.
File descriptors provide a primitive, low-level interface to input
and output operations. Both file descriptors and streams can represent
a connection to a device (such as a terminal), or a pipe or socket for
communicating with another process, as well as a normal file. But, if
you want to do control operations that are specific to a particular kind
of device, you must use a file descriptor; there are no facilities to
use streams in this way. You must also use file descriptors if your
program needs to do input or output in special modes, such as
nonblocking (or polled) input (*note File Status Flags::).
Streams provide a higher-level interface, layered on top of the
primitive file descriptor facilities. The stream interface treats all
kinds of files pretty much alike--the sole exception being the three
styles of buffering that you can choose (*note Stream Buffering::).
The main advantage of using the stream interface is that the set of
functions for performing actual input and output operations (as opposed
to control operations) on streams is much richer and more powerful than
the corresponding facilities for file descriptors. The file descriptor
interface provides only simple functions for transferring blocks of
characters, but the stream interface also provides powerful formatted
input and output functions (`printf' and `scanf') as well as functions
for character- and line-oriented input and output.
Since streams are implemented in terms of file descriptors, you can
extract the file descriptor from a stream and perform low-level
operations directly on the file descriptor. You can also initially open
a connection as a file descriptor and then make a stream associated with
that file descriptor.
In general, you should stick with using streams rather than file
descriptors, unless there is some specific operation you want to do that
can only be done on a file descriptor. If you are a beginning
programmer and aren't sure what functions to use, we suggest that you
concentrate on the formatted input functions (*note Formatted Input::)
and formatted output functions (*note Formatted Output::).
If you are concerned about portability of your programs to systems
other than GNU, you should also be aware that file descriptors are not
as portable as streams. You can expect any system running ISO C to
support streams, but non-GNU systems may not support file descriptors at
all, or may only implement a subset of the GNU functions that operate on
file descriptors. Most of the file descriptor functions in the GNU C
Library are included in the POSIX.1 standard, however.

File: libc.info, Node: File Position, Prev: Streams and File Descriptors, Up: I/O Concepts
11.1.2 File Position
--------------------
One of the attributes of an open file is its "file position" that keeps
track of where in the file the next character is to be read or written.
On GNU systems, and all POSIX.1 systems, the file position is simply an
integer representing the number of bytes from the beginning of the file.
The file position is normally set to the beginning of the file when
it is opened, and each time a character is read or written, the file
position is incremented. In other words, access to the file is normally
"sequential".
Ordinary files permit read or write operations at any position within
the file. Some other kinds of files may also permit this. Files which
do permit this are sometimes referred to as "random-access" files. You
can change the file position using the `fseek' function on a stream
(*note File Positioning::) or the `lseek' function on a file descriptor
(*note I/O Primitives::). If you try to change the file position on a
file that doesn't support random access, you get the `ESPIPE' error.
Streams and descriptors that are opened for "append access" are
treated specially for output: output to such files is _always_ appended
sequentially to the _end_ of the file, regardless of the file position.
However, the file position is still used to control where in the file
reading is done.
If you think about it, you'll realize that several programs can read
a given file at the same time. In order for each program to be able to
read the file at its own pace, each program must have its own file
pointer, which is not affected by anything the other programs do.
In fact, each opening of a file creates a separate file position.
Thus, if you open a file twice even in the same program, you get two
streams or descriptors with independent file positions.
By contrast, if you open a descriptor and then duplicate it to get
another descriptor, these two descriptors share the same file position:
changing the file position of one descriptor will affect the other.

File: libc.info, Node: File Names, Prev: I/O Concepts, Up: I/O Overview
11.2 File Names
===============
In order to open a connection to a file, or to perform other operations
such as deleting a file, you need some way to refer to the file. Nearly
all files have names that are strings--even files which are actually
devices such as tape drives or terminals. These strings are called
"file names". You specify the file name to say which file you want to
open or operate on.
This section describes the conventions for file names and how the
operating system works with them.
* Menu:
* Directories:: Directories contain entries for files.
* File Name Resolution:: A file name specifies how to look up a file.
* File Name Errors:: Error conditions relating to file names.
* File Name Portability:: File name portability and syntax issues.

File: libc.info, Node: Directories, Next: File Name Resolution, Up: File Names
11.2.1 Directories
------------------
In order to understand the syntax of file names, you need to understand
how the file system is organized into a hierarchy of directories.
A "directory" is a file that contains information to associate other
files with names; these associations are called "links" or "directory
entries". Sometimes, people speak of "files in a directory", but in
reality, a directory only contains pointers to files, not the files
themselves.
The name of a file contained in a directory entry is called a "file
name component". In general, a file name consists of a sequence of one
or more such components, separated by the slash character (`/'). A
file name which is just one component names a file with respect to its
directory. A file name with multiple components names a directory, and
then a file in that directory, and so on.
Some other documents, such as the POSIX standard, use the term
"pathname" for what we call a file name, and either "filename" or
"pathname component" for what this manual calls a file name component.
We don't use this terminology because a "path" is something completely
different (a list of directories to search), and we think that
"pathname" used for something else will confuse users. We always use
"file name" and "file name component" (or sometimes just "component",
where the context is obvious) in GNU documentation. Some macros use
the POSIX terminology in their names, such as `PATH_MAX'. These macros
are defined by the POSIX standard, so we cannot change their names.
You can find more detailed information about operations on
directories in *note File System Interface::.

File: libc.info, Node: File Name Resolution, Next: File Name Errors, Prev: Directories, Up: File Names
11.2.2 File Name Resolution
---------------------------
A file name consists of file name components separated by slash (`/')
characters. On the systems that the GNU C Library supports, multiple
successive `/' characters are equivalent to a single `/' character.
The process of determining what file a file name refers to is called
"file name resolution". This is performed by examining the components
that make up a file name in left-to-right order, and locating each
successive component in the directory named by the previous component.
Of course, each of the files that are referenced as directories must
actually exist, be directories instead of regular files, and have the
appropriate permissions to be accessible by the process; otherwise the
file name resolution fails.
If a file name begins with a `/', the first component in the file
name is located in the "root directory" of the process (usually all
processes on the system have the same root directory). Such a file name
is called an "absolute file name".
Otherwise, the first component in the file name is located in the
current working directory (*note Working Directory::). This kind of
file name is called a "relative file name".
The file name components `.' ("dot") and `..' ("dot-dot") have
special meanings. Every directory has entries for these file name
components. The file name component `.' refers to the directory
itself, while the file name component `..' refers to its "parent
directory" (the directory that contains the link for the directory in
question). As a special case, `..' in the root directory refers to the
root directory itself, since it has no parent; thus `/..' is the same
as `/'.
Here are some examples of file names:
`/a'
The file named `a', in the root directory.
`/a/b'
The file named `b', in the directory named `a' in the root
directory.
`a'
The file named `a', in the current working directory.
`/a/./b'
This is the same as `/a/b'.
`./a'
The file named `a', in the current working directory.
`../a'
The file named `a', in the parent directory of the current working
directory.
A file name that names a directory may optionally end in a `/'. You
can specify a file name of `/' to refer to the root directory, but the
empty string is not a meaningful file name. If you want to refer to
the current working directory, use a file name of `.' or `./'.
Unlike some other operating systems, GNU systems don't have any
built-in support for file types (or extensions) or file versions as part
of its file name syntax. Many programs and utilities use conventions
for file names--for example, files containing C source code usually
have names suffixed with `.c'--but there is nothing in the file system
itself that enforces this kind of convention.

File: libc.info, Node: File Name Errors, Next: File Name Portability, Prev: File Name Resolution, Up: File Names
11.2.3 File Name Errors
-----------------------
Functions that accept file name arguments usually detect these `errno'
error conditions relating to the file name syntax or trouble finding
the named file. These errors are referred to throughout this manual as
the "usual file name errors".
`EACCES'
The process does not have search permission for a directory
component of the file name.
`ENAMETOOLONG'
This error is used when either the total length of a file name is
greater than `PATH_MAX', or when an individual file name component
has a length greater than `NAME_MAX'. *Note Limits for Files::.
On GNU/Hurd systems, there is no imposed limit on overall file name
length, but some file systems may place limits on the length of a
component.
`ENOENT'
This error is reported when a file referenced as a directory
component in the file name doesn't exist, or when a component is a
symbolic link whose target file does not exist. *Note Symbolic
Links::.
`ENOTDIR'
A file that is referenced as a directory component in the file name
exists, but it isn't a directory.
`ELOOP'
Too many symbolic links were resolved while trying to look up the
file name. The system has an arbitrary limit on the number of
symbolic links that may be resolved in looking up a single file
name, as a primitive way to detect loops. *Note Symbolic Links::.

File: libc.info, Node: File Name Portability, Prev: File Name Errors, Up: File Names
11.2.4 Portability of File Names
--------------------------------
The rules for the syntax of file names discussed in *note File Names::,
are the rules normally used by GNU systems and by other POSIX systems.
However, other operating systems may use other conventions.
There are two reasons why it can be important for you to be aware of
file name portability issues:
* If your program makes assumptions about file name syntax, or
contains embedded literal file name strings, it is more difficult
to get it to run under other operating systems that use different
syntax conventions.
* Even if you are not concerned about running your program on
machines that run other operating systems, it may still be
possible to access files that use different naming conventions.
For example, you may be able to access file systems on another
computer running a different operating system over a network, or
read and write disks in formats used by other operating systems.
The ISO C standard says very little about file name syntax, only that
file names are strings. In addition to varying restrictions on the
length of file names and what characters can validly appear in a file
name, different operating systems use different conventions and syntax
for concepts such as structured directories and file types or
extensions. Some concepts such as file versions might be supported in
some operating systems and not by others.
The POSIX.1 standard allows implementations to put additional
restrictions on file name syntax, concerning what characters are
permitted in file names and on the length of file name and file name
component strings. However, on GNU systems, any character except the
null character is permitted in a file name string, and on GNU/Hurd
systems there are no limits on the length of file name strings.

File: libc.info, Node: I/O on Streams, Next: Low-Level I/O, Prev: I/O Overview, Up: Top
12 Input/Output on Streams
**************************
This chapter describes the functions for creating streams and performing
input and output operations on them. As discussed in *note I/O
Overview::, a stream is a fairly abstract, high-level concept
representing a communications channel to a file, device, or process.
* Menu:
* Streams:: About the data type representing a stream.
* Standard Streams:: Streams to the standard input and output
devices are created for you.
* Opening Streams:: How to create a stream to talk to a file.
* Closing Streams:: Close a stream when you are finished with it.
* Streams and Threads:: Issues with streams in threaded programs.
* Streams and I18N:: Streams in internationalized applications.
* Simple Output:: Unformatted output by characters and lines.
* Character Input:: Unformatted input by characters and words.
* Line Input:: Reading a line or a record from a stream.
* Unreading:: Peeking ahead/pushing back input just read.
* Block Input/Output:: Input and output operations on blocks of data.
* Formatted Output:: `printf' and related functions.
* Customizing Printf:: You can define new conversion specifiers for
`printf' and friends.
* Formatted Input:: `scanf' and related functions.
* EOF and Errors:: How you can tell if an I/O error happens.
* Error Recovery:: What you can do about errors.
* Binary Streams:: Some systems distinguish between text files
and binary files.
* File Positioning:: About random-access streams.
* Portable Positioning:: Random access on peculiar ISO C systems.
* Stream Buffering:: How to control buffering of streams.
* Other Kinds of Streams:: Streams that do not necessarily correspond
to an open file.
* Formatted Messages:: Print strictly formatted messages.

File: libc.info, Node: Streams, Next: Standard Streams, Up: I/O on Streams
12.1 Streams
============
For historical reasons, the type of the C data structure that represents
a stream is called `FILE' rather than "stream". Since most of the
library functions deal with objects of type `FILE *', sometimes the
term "file pointer" is also used to mean "stream". This leads to
unfortunate confusion over terminology in many books on C. This
manual, however, is careful to use the terms "file" and "stream" only
in the technical sense.
The `FILE' type is declared in the header file `stdio.h'.
-- Data Type: FILE
This is the data type used to represent stream objects. A `FILE'
object holds all of the internal state information about the
connection to the associated file, including such things as the
file position indicator and buffering information. Each stream
also has error and end-of-file status indicators that can be
tested with the `ferror' and `feof' functions; see *note EOF and
Errors::.
`FILE' objects are allocated and managed internally by the
input/output library functions. Don't try to create your own objects of
type `FILE'; let the library do it. Your programs should deal only
with pointers to these objects (that is, `FILE *' values) rather than
the objects themselves.

File: libc.info, Node: Standard Streams, Next: Opening Streams, Prev: Streams, Up: I/O on Streams
12.2 Standard Streams
=====================
When the `main' function of your program is invoked, it already has
three predefined streams open and available for use. These represent
the "standard" input and output channels that have been established for
the process.
These streams are declared in the header file `stdio.h'.
-- Variable: FILE * stdin
The "standard input" stream, which is the normal source of input
for the program.
-- Variable: FILE * stdout
The "standard output" stream, which is used for normal output from
the program.
-- Variable: FILE * stderr
The "standard error" stream, which is used for error messages and
diagnostics issued by the program.
On GNU systems, you can specify what files or processes correspond to
these streams using the pipe and redirection facilities provided by the
shell. (The primitives shells use to implement these facilities are
described in *note File System Interface::.) Most other operating
systems provide similar mechanisms, but the details of how to use them
can vary.
In the GNU C Library, `stdin', `stdout', and `stderr' are normal
variables which you can set just like any others. For example, to
redirect the standard output to a file, you could do:
fclose (stdout);
stdout = fopen ("standard-output-file", "w");
Note however, that in other systems `stdin', `stdout', and `stderr'
are macros that you cannot assign to in the normal way. But you can
use `freopen' to get the effect of closing one and reopening it. *Note
Opening Streams::.
The three streams `stdin', `stdout', and `stderr' are not unoriented
at program start (*note Streams and I18N::).

File: libc.info, Node: Opening Streams, Next: Closing Streams, Prev: Standard Streams, Up: I/O on Streams
12.3 Opening Streams
====================
Opening a file with the `fopen' function creates a new stream and
establishes a connection between the stream and a file. This may
involve creating a new file.
Everything described in this section is declared in the header file
`stdio.h'.
-- Function: FILE * fopen (const char *FILENAME, const char *OPENTYPE)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe heap lock | AC-Unsafe mem fd
lock | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fopen' function opens a stream for I/O to the file FILENAME,
and returns a pointer to the stream.
The OPENTYPE argument is a string that controls how the file is
opened and specifies attributes of the resulting stream. It must
begin with one of the following sequences of characters:
`r'
Open an existing file for reading only.
`w'
Open the file for writing only. If the file already exists,
it is truncated to zero length. Otherwise a new file is
created.
`a'
Open a file for append access; that is, writing at the end of
file only. If the file already exists, its initial contents
are unchanged and output to the stream is appended to the end
of the file. Otherwise, a new, empty file is created.
`r+'
Open an existing file for both reading and writing. The
initial contents of the file are unchanged and the initial
file position is at the beginning of the file.
`w+'
Open a file for both reading and writing. If the file
already exists, it is truncated to zero length. Otherwise, a
new file is created.
`a+'
Open or create file for both reading and appending. If the
file exists, its initial contents are unchanged. Otherwise,
a new file is created. The initial file position for reading
is at the beginning of the file, but output is always
appended to the end of the file.
As you can see, `+' requests a stream that can do both input and
output. When using such a stream, you must call `fflush' (*note
Stream Buffering::) or a file positioning function such as `fseek'
(*note File Positioning::) when switching from reading to writing
or vice versa. Otherwise, internal buffers might not be emptied
properly.
Additional characters may appear after these to specify flags for
the call. Always put the mode (`r', `w+', etc.) first; that is
the only part you are guaranteed will be understood by all systems.
The GNU C Library defines additional characters for use in
OPENTYPE:
`c'
The file is opened with cancellation in the I/O functions
disabled.
`e'
The underlying file descriptor will be closed if you use any
of the `exec...' functions (*note Executing a File::). (This
is equivalent to having set `FD_CLOEXEC' on that descriptor.
*Note Descriptor Flags::.)
`m'
The file is opened and accessed using `mmap'. This is only
supported with files opened for reading.
`x'
Insist on creating a new file--if a file FILENAME already
exists, `fopen' fails rather than opening it. If you use `x'
you are guaranteed that you will not clobber an existing
file. This is equivalent to the `O_EXCL' option to the
`open' function (*note Opening and Closing Files::).
The `x' modifier is part of ISO C11.
The character `b' in OPENTYPE has a standard meaning; it requests
a binary stream rather than a text stream. But this makes no
difference in POSIX systems (including GNU systems). If both `+'
and `b' are specified, they can appear in either order. *Note
Binary Streams::.
If the OPENTYPE string contains the sequence `,ccs=STRING' then
STRING is taken as the name of a coded character set and `fopen'
will mark the stream as wide-oriented with appropriate conversion
functions in place to convert from and to the character set
STRING. Any other stream is opened initially unoriented and the
orientation is decided with the first file operation. If the
first operation is a wide character operation, the stream is not
only marked as wide-oriented, also the conversion functions to
convert to the coded character set used for the current locale are
loaded. This will not change anymore from this point on even if
the locale selected for the `LC_CTYPE' category is changed.
Any other characters in OPENTYPE are simply ignored. They may be
meaningful in other systems.
If the open fails, `fopen' returns a null pointer.
When the sources are compiling with `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS == 64' on a
32 bit machine this function is in fact `fopen64' since the LFS
interface replaces transparently the old interface.
You can have multiple streams (or file descriptors) pointing to the
same file open at the same time. If you do only input, this works
straightforwardly, but you must be careful if any output streams are
included. *Note Stream/Descriptor Precautions::. This is equally true
whether the streams are in one program (not usual) or in several
programs (which can easily happen). It may be advantageous to use the
file locking facilities to avoid simultaneous access. *Note File
Locks::.
-- Function: FILE * fopen64 (const char *FILENAME, const char
*OPENTYPE)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe heap lock | AC-Unsafe mem fd
lock | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function is similar to `fopen' but the stream it returns a
pointer for is opened using `open64'. Therefore this stream can be
used even on files larger than 2^31 bytes on 32 bit machines.
Please note that the return type is still `FILE *'. There is no
special `FILE' type for the LFS interface.
If the sources are compiled with `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS == 64' on a 32
bits machine this function is available under the name `fopen' and
so transparently replaces the old interface.
-- Macro: int FOPEN_MAX
The value of this macro is an integer constant expression that
represents the minimum number of streams that the implementation
guarantees can be open simultaneously. You might be able to open
more than this many streams, but that is not guaranteed. The
value of this constant is at least eight, which includes the three
standard streams `stdin', `stdout', and `stderr'. In POSIX.1
systems this value is determined by the `OPEN_MAX' parameter;
*note General Limits::. In BSD and GNU, it is controlled by the
`RLIMIT_NOFILE' resource limit; *note Limits on Resources::.
-- Function: FILE * freopen (const char *FILENAME, const char
*OPENTYPE, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe corrupt fd
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function is like a combination of `fclose' and `fopen'. It
first closes the stream referred to by STREAM, ignoring any errors
that are detected in the process. (Because errors are ignored,
you should not use `freopen' on an output stream if you have
actually done any output using the stream.) Then the file named by
FILENAME is opened with mode OPENTYPE as for `fopen', and
associated with the same stream object STREAM.
If the operation fails, a null pointer is returned; otherwise,
`freopen' returns STREAM.
`freopen' has traditionally been used to connect a standard stream
such as `stdin' with a file of your own choice. This is useful in
programs in which use of a standard stream for certain purposes is
hard-coded. In the GNU C Library, you can simply close the
standard streams and open new ones with `fopen'. But other
systems lack this ability, so using `freopen' is more portable.
When the sources are compiling with `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS == 64' on a
32 bit machine this function is in fact `freopen64' since the LFS
interface replaces transparently the old interface.
-- Function: FILE * freopen64 (const char *FILENAME, const char
*OPENTYPE, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe corrupt fd
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function is similar to `freopen'. The only difference is that
on 32 bit machine the stream returned is able to read beyond the
2^31 bytes limits imposed by the normal interface. It should be
noted that the stream pointed to by STREAM need not be opened
using `fopen64' or `freopen64' since its mode is not important for
this function.
If the sources are compiled with `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS == 64' on a 32
bits machine this function is available under the name `freopen'
and so transparently replaces the old interface.
In some situations it is useful to know whether a given stream is
available for reading or writing. This information is normally not
available and would have to be remembered separately. Solaris
introduced a few functions to get this information from the stream
descriptor and these functions are also available in the GNU C Library.
-- Function: int __freadable (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX Safety
Concepts::.
The `__freadable' function determines whether the stream STREAM
was opened to allow reading. In this case the return value is
nonzero. For write-only streams the function returns zero.
This function is declared in `stdio_ext.h'.
-- Function: int __fwritable (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX Safety
Concepts::.
The `__fwritable' function determines whether the stream STREAM
was opened to allow writing. In this case the return value is
nonzero. For read-only streams the function returns zero.
This function is declared in `stdio_ext.h'.
For slightly different kind of problems there are two more functions.
They provide even finer-grained information.
-- Function: int __freading (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX Safety
Concepts::.
The `__freading' function determines whether the stream STREAM was
last read from or whether it is opened read-only. In this case
the return value is nonzero, otherwise it is zero. Determining
whether a stream opened for reading and writing was last used for
writing allows to draw conclusions about the content about the
buffer, among other things.
This function is declared in `stdio_ext.h'.
-- Function: int __fwriting (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX Safety
Concepts::.
The `__fwriting' function determines whether the stream STREAM was
last written to or whether it is opened write-only. In this case
the return value is nonzero, otherwise it is zero.
This function is declared in `stdio_ext.h'.

File: libc.info, Node: Closing Streams, Next: Streams and Threads, Prev: Opening Streams, Up: I/O on Streams
12.4 Closing Streams
====================
When a stream is closed with `fclose', the connection between the
stream and the file is canceled. After you have closed a stream, you
cannot perform any additional operations on it.
-- Function: int fclose (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe heap lock | AC-Unsafe lock mem
fd | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function causes STREAM to be closed and the connection to the
corresponding file to be broken. Any buffered output is written
and any buffered input is discarded. The `fclose' function returns
a value of `0' if the file was closed successfully, and `EOF' if
an error was detected.
It is important to check for errors when you call `fclose' to close
an output stream, because real, everyday errors can be detected at
this time. For example, when `fclose' writes the remaining
buffered output, it might get an error because the disk is full.
Even if you know the buffer is empty, errors can still occur when
closing a file if you are using NFS.
The function `fclose' is declared in `stdio.h'.
To close all streams currently available the GNU C Library provides
another function.
-- Function: int fcloseall (void)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:streams | AS-Unsafe | AC-Safe |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function causes all open streams of the process to be closed
and the connection to corresponding files to be broken. All
buffered data is written and any buffered input is discarded. The
`fcloseall' function returns a value of `0' if all the files were
closed successfully, and `EOF' if an error was detected.
This function should be used only in special situations, e.g.,
when an error occurred and the program must be aborted. Normally
each single stream should be closed separately so that problems
with individual streams can be identified. It is also problematic
since the standard streams (*note Standard Streams::) will also be
closed.
The function `fcloseall' is declared in `stdio.h'.
If the `main' function to your program returns, or if you call the
`exit' function (*note Normal Termination::), all open streams are
automatically closed properly. If your program terminates in any other
manner, such as by calling the `abort' function (*note Aborting a
Program::) or from a fatal signal (*note Signal Handling::), open
streams might not be closed properly. Buffered output might not be
flushed and files may be incomplete. For more information on buffering
of streams, see *note Stream Buffering::.

File: libc.info, Node: Streams and Threads, Next: Streams and I18N, Prev: Closing Streams, Up: I/O on Streams
12.5 Streams and Threads
========================
Streams can be used in multi-threaded applications in the same way they
are used in single-threaded applications. But the programmer must be
aware of the possible complications. It is important to know about
these also if the program one writes never use threads since the design
and implementation of many stream functions is heavily influenced by the
requirements added by multi-threaded programming.
The POSIX standard requires that by default the stream operations are
atomic. I.e., issuing two stream operations for the same stream in two
threads at the same time will cause the operations to be executed as if
they were issued sequentially. The buffer operations performed while
reading or writing are protected from other uses of the same stream. To
do this each stream has an internal lock object which has to be
(implicitly) acquired before any work can be done.
But there are situations where this is not enough and there are also
situations where this is not wanted. The implicit locking is not enough
if the program requires more than one stream function call to happen
atomically. One example would be if an output line a program wants to
generate is created by several function calls. The functions by
themselves would ensure only atomicity of their own operation, but not
atomicity over all the function calls. For this it is necessary to
perform the stream locking in the application code.
-- Function: void flockfile (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Unsafe lock | *Note POSIX
Safety Concepts::.
The `flockfile' function acquires the internal locking object
associated with the stream STREAM. This ensures that no other
thread can explicitly through `flockfile'/`ftrylockfile' or
implicit through a call of a stream function lock the stream. The
thread will block until the lock is acquired. An explicit call to
`funlockfile' has to be used to release the lock.
-- Function: int ftrylockfile (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Unsafe lock | *Note POSIX
Safety Concepts::.
The `ftrylockfile' function tries to acquire the internal locking
object associated with the stream STREAM just like `flockfile'.
But unlike `flockfile' this function does not block if the lock is
not available. `ftrylockfile' returns zero if the lock was
successfully acquired. Otherwise the stream is locked by another
thread.
-- Function: void funlockfile (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Unsafe lock | *Note POSIX
Safety Concepts::.
The `funlockfile' function releases the internal locking object of
the stream STREAM. The stream must have been locked before by a
call to `flockfile' or a successful call of `ftrylockfile'. The
implicit locking performed by the stream operations do not count.
The `funlockfile' function does not return an error status and the
behavior of a call for a stream which is not locked by the current
thread is undefined.
The following example shows how the functions above can be used to
generate an output line atomically even in multi-threaded applications
(yes, the same job could be done with one `fprintf' call but it is
sometimes not possible):
FILE *fp;
{
...
flockfile (fp);
fputs ("This is test number ", fp);
fprintf (fp, "%d\n", test);
funlockfile (fp)
}
Without the explicit locking it would be possible for another thread
to use the stream FP after the `fputs' call return and before `fprintf'
was called with the result that the number does not follow the word
`number'.
From this description it might already be clear that the locking
objects in streams are no simple mutexes. Since locking the same
stream twice in the same thread is allowed the locking objects must be
equivalent to recursive mutexes. These mutexes keep track of the owner
and the number of times the lock is acquired. The same number of
`funlockfile' calls by the same threads is necessary to unlock the
stream completely. For instance:
void
foo (FILE *fp)
{
ftrylockfile (fp);
fputs ("in foo\n", fp);
/* This is very wrong!!! */
funlockfile (fp);
}
It is important here that the `funlockfile' function is only called
if the `ftrylockfile' function succeeded in locking the stream. It is
therefore always wrong to ignore the result of `ftrylockfile'. And it
makes no sense since otherwise one would use `flockfile'. The result
of code like that above is that either `funlockfile' tries to free a
stream that hasn't been locked by the current thread or it frees the
stream prematurely. The code should look like this:
void
foo (FILE *fp)
{
if (ftrylockfile (fp) == 0)
{
fputs ("in foo\n", fp);
funlockfile (fp);
}
}
Now that we covered why it is necessary to have these locking it is
necessary to talk about situations when locking is unwanted and what can
be done. The locking operations (explicit or implicit) don't come for
free. Even if a lock is not taken the cost is not zero. The operations
which have to be performed require memory operations that are safe in
multi-processor environments. With the many local caches involved in
such systems this is quite costly. So it is best to avoid the locking
completely if it is not needed - because the code in question is never
used in a context where two or more threads may use a stream at a time.
This can be determined most of the time for application code; for
library code which can be used in many contexts one should default to be
conservative and use locking.
There are two basic mechanisms to avoid locking. The first is to use
the `_unlocked' variants of the stream operations. The POSIX standard
defines quite a few of those and the GNU C Library adds a few more.
These variants of the functions behave just like the functions with the
name without the suffix except that they do not lock the stream. Using
these functions is very desirable since they are potentially much
faster. This is not only because the locking operation itself is
avoided. More importantly, functions like `putc' and `getc' are very
simple and traditionally (before the introduction of threads) were
implemented as macros which are very fast if the buffer is not empty.
With the addition of locking requirements these functions are no longer
implemented as macros since they would expand to too much code. But
these macros are still available with the same functionality under the
new names `putc_unlocked' and `getc_unlocked'. This possibly huge
difference of speed also suggests the use of the `_unlocked' functions
even if locking is required. The difference is that the locking then
has to be performed in the program:
void
foo (FILE *fp, char *buf)
{
flockfile (fp);
while (*buf != '/')
putc_unlocked (*buf++, fp);
funlockfile (fp);
}
If in this example the `putc' function would be used and the
explicit locking would be missing the `putc' function would have to
acquire the lock in every call, potentially many times depending on when
the loop terminates. Writing it the way illustrated above allows the
`putc_unlocked' macro to be used which means no locking and direct
manipulation of the buffer of the stream.
A second way to avoid locking is by using a non-standard function
which was introduced in Solaris and is available in the GNU C Library
as well.
-- Function: int __fsetlocking (FILE *STREAM, int TYPE)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe lock | AC-Safe |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `__fsetlocking' function can be used to select whether the
stream operations will implicitly acquire the locking object of the
stream STREAM. By default this is done but it can be disabled and
reinstated using this function. There are three values defined
for the TYPE parameter.
`FSETLOCKING_INTERNAL'
The stream `stream' will from now on use the default internal
locking. Every stream operation with exception of the
`_unlocked' variants will implicitly lock the stream.
`FSETLOCKING_BYCALLER'
After the `__fsetlocking' function returns the user is
responsible for locking the stream. None of the stream
operations will implicitly do this anymore until the state is
set back to `FSETLOCKING_INTERNAL'.
`FSETLOCKING_QUERY'
`__fsetlocking' only queries the current locking state of the
stream. The return value will be `FSETLOCKING_INTERNAL' or
`FSETLOCKING_BYCALLER' depending on the state.
The return value of `__fsetlocking' is either
`FSETLOCKING_INTERNAL' or `FSETLOCKING_BYCALLER' depending on the
state of the stream before the call.
This function and the values for the TYPE parameter are declared
in `stdio_ext.h'.
This function is especially useful when program code has to be used
which is written without knowledge about the `_unlocked' functions (or
if the programmer was too lazy to use them).

File: libc.info, Node: Streams and I18N, Next: Simple Output, Prev: Streams and Threads, Up: I/O on Streams
12.6 Streams in Internationalized Applications
==============================================
ISO C90 introduced the new type `wchar_t' to allow handling larger
character sets. What was missing was a possibility to output strings
of `wchar_t' directly. One had to convert them into multibyte strings
using `mbstowcs' (there was no `mbsrtowcs' yet) and then use the normal
stream functions. While this is doable it is very cumbersome since
performing the conversions is not trivial and greatly increases program
complexity and size.
The Unix standard early on (I think in XPG4.2) introduced two
additional format specifiers for the `printf' and `scanf' families of
functions. Printing and reading of single wide characters was made
possible using the `%C' specifier and wide character strings can be
handled with `%S'. These modifiers behave just like `%c' and `%s' only
that they expect the corresponding argument to have the wide character
type and that the wide character and string are transformed into/from
multibyte strings before being used.
This was a beginning but it is still not good enough. Not always is
it desirable to use `printf' and `scanf'. The other, smaller and
faster functions cannot handle wide characters. Second, it is not
possible to have a format string for `printf' and `scanf' consisting of
wide characters. The result is that format strings would have to be
generated if they have to contain non-basic characters.
In the Amendment 1 to ISO C90 a whole new set of functions was added
to solve the problem. Most of the stream functions got a counterpart
which take a wide character or wide character string instead of a
character or string respectively. The new functions operate on the
same streams (like `stdout'). This is different from the model of the
C++ runtime library where separate streams for wide and normal I/O are
used.
Being able to use the same stream for wide and normal operations
comes with a restriction: a stream can be used either for wide
operations or for normal operations. Once it is decided there is no
way back. Only a call to `freopen' or `freopen64' can reset the
"orientation". The orientation can be decided in three ways:
* If any of the normal character functions is used (this includes the
`fread' and `fwrite' functions) the stream is marked as not wide
oriented.
* If any of the wide character functions is used the stream is
marked as wide oriented.
* The `fwide' function can be used to set the orientation either way.
It is important to never mix the use of wide and not wide operations
on a stream. There are no diagnostics issued. The application behavior
will simply be strange or the application will simply crash. The
`fwide' function can help avoiding this.
-- Function: int fwide (FILE *STREAM, int MODE)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fwide' function can be used to set and query the state of the
orientation of the stream STREAM. If the MODE parameter has a
positive value the streams get wide oriented, for negative values
narrow oriented. It is not possible to overwrite previous
orientations with `fwide'. I.e., if the stream STREAM was already
oriented before the call nothing is done.
If MODE is zero the current orientation state is queried and
nothing is changed.
The `fwide' function returns a negative value, zero, or a positive
value if the stream is narrow, not at all, or wide oriented
respectively.
This function was introduced in Amendment 1 to ISO C90 and is
declared in `wchar.h'.
It is generally a good idea to orient a stream as early as possible.
This can prevent surprise especially for the standard streams `stdin',
`stdout', and `stderr'. If some library function in some situations
uses one of these streams and this use orients the stream in a
different way the rest of the application expects it one might end up
with hard to reproduce errors. Remember that no errors are signal if
the streams are used incorrectly. Leaving a stream unoriented after
creation is normally only necessary for library functions which create
streams which can be used in different contexts.
When writing code which uses streams and which can be used in
different contexts it is important to query the orientation of the
stream before using it (unless the rules of the library interface
demand a specific orientation). The following little, silly function
illustrates this.
void
print_f (FILE *fp)
{
if (fwide (fp, 0) > 0)
/* Positive return value means wide orientation. */
fputwc (L'f', fp);
else
fputc ('f', fp);
}
Note that in this case the function `print_f' decides about the
orientation of the stream if it was unoriented before (will not happen
if the advise above is followed).
The encoding used for the `wchar_t' values is unspecified and the
user must not make any assumptions about it. For I/O of `wchar_t'
values this means that it is impossible to write these values directly
to the stream. This is not what follows from the ISO C locale model
either. What happens instead is that the bytes read from or written to
the underlying media are first converted into the internal encoding
chosen by the implementation for `wchar_t'. The external encoding is
determined by the `LC_CTYPE' category of the current locale or by the
`ccs' part of the mode specification given to `fopen', `fopen64',
`freopen', or `freopen64'. How and when the conversion happens is
unspecified and it happens invisible to the user.
Since a stream is created in the unoriented state it has at that
point no conversion associated with it. The conversion which will be
used is determined by the `LC_CTYPE' category selected at the time the
stream is oriented. If the locales are changed at the runtime this
might produce surprising results unless one pays attention. This is
just another good reason to orient the stream explicitly as soon as
possible, perhaps with a call to `fwide'.

File: libc.info, Node: Simple Output, Next: Character Input, Prev: Streams and I18N, Up: I/O on Streams
12.7 Simple Output by Characters or Lines
=========================================
This section describes functions for performing character- and
line-oriented output.
These narrow streams functions are declared in the header file
`stdio.h' and the wide stream functions in `wchar.h'.
-- Function: int fputc (int C, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe corrupt lock
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fputc' function converts the character C to type `unsigned
char', and writes it to the stream STREAM. `EOF' is returned if a
write error occurs; otherwise the character C is returned.
-- Function: wint_t fputwc (wchar_t WC, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe corrupt lock
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fputwc' function writes the wide character WC to the stream
STREAM. `WEOF' is returned if a write error occurs; otherwise the
character WC is returned.
-- Function: int fputc_unlocked (int C, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe
corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fputc_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `fputc'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
-- Function: wint_t fputwc_unlocked (wchar_t WC, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe
corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fputwc_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `fputwc'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
This function is a GNU extension.
-- Function: int putc (int C, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe corrupt lock
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This is just like `fputc', except that most systems implement it as
a macro, making it faster. One consequence is that it may
evaluate the STREAM argument more than once, which is an exception
to the general rule for macros. `putc' is usually the best
function to use for writing a single character.
-- Function: wint_t putwc (wchar_t WC, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe corrupt lock
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This is just like `fputwc', except that it can be implement as a
macro, making it faster. One consequence is that it may evaluate
the STREAM argument more than once, which is an exception to the
general rule for macros. `putwc' is usually the best function to
use for writing a single wide character.
-- Function: int putc_unlocked (int C, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe
corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `putc_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `putc' function
except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
-- Function: wint_t putwc_unlocked (wchar_t WC, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe
corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `putwc_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `putwc'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
This function is a GNU extension.
-- Function: int putchar (int C)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe corrupt lock
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `putchar' function is equivalent to `putc' with `stdout' as
the value of the STREAM argument.
-- Function: wint_t putwchar (wchar_t WC)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe corrupt lock
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `putwchar' function is equivalent to `putwc' with `stdout' as
the value of the STREAM argument.
-- Function: int putchar_unlocked (int C)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:stdout | AS-Unsafe corrupt |
AC-Unsafe corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `putchar_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `putchar'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
-- Function: wint_t putwchar_unlocked (wchar_t WC)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:stdout | AS-Unsafe corrupt |
AC-Unsafe corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `putwchar_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `putwchar'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
This function is a GNU extension.
-- Function: int fputs (const char *S, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe corrupt lock
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The function `fputs' writes the string S to the stream STREAM.
The terminating null character is not written. This function does
_not_ add a newline character, either. It outputs only the
characters in the string.
This function returns `EOF' if a write error occurs, and otherwise
a non-negative value.
For example:
fputs ("Are ", stdout);
fputs ("you ", stdout);
fputs ("hungry?\n", stdout);
outputs the text `Are you hungry?' followed by a newline.
-- Function: int fputws (const wchar_t *WS, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe corrupt lock
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The function `fputws' writes the wide character string WS to the
stream STREAM. The terminating null character is not written.
This function does _not_ add a newline character, either. It
outputs only the characters in the string.
This function returns `WEOF' if a write error occurs, and otherwise
a non-negative value.
-- Function: int fputs_unlocked (const char *S, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe
corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fputs_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `fputs'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
This function is a GNU extension.
-- Function: int fputws_unlocked (const wchar_t *WS, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe
corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fputws_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `fputws'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
This function is a GNU extension.
-- Function: int puts (const char *S)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `puts' function writes the string S to the stream `stdout'
followed by a newline. The terminating null character of the
string is not written. (Note that `fputs' does _not_ write a
newline as this function does.)
`puts' is the most convenient function for printing simple
messages. For example:
puts ("This is a message.");
outputs the text `This is a message.' followed by a newline.
-- Function: int putw (int W, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function writes the word W (that is, an `int') to STREAM. It
is provided for compatibility with SVID, but we recommend you use
`fwrite' instead (*note Block Input/Output::).

File: libc.info, Node: Character Input, Next: Line Input, Prev: Simple Output, Up: I/O on Streams
12.8 Character Input
====================
This section describes functions for performing character-oriented
input. These narrow streams functions are declared in the header file
`stdio.h' and the wide character functions are declared in `wchar.h'.
These functions return an `int' or `wint_t' value (for narrow and
wide stream functions respectively) that is either a character of
input, or the special value `EOF'/`WEOF' (usually -1). For the narrow
stream functions it is important to store the result of these functions
in a variable of type `int' instead of `char', even when you plan to
use it only as a character. Storing `EOF' in a `char' variable
truncates its value to the size of a character, so that it is no longer
distinguishable from the valid character `(char) -1'. So always use an
`int' for the result of `getc' and friends, and check for `EOF' after
the call; once you've verified that the result is not `EOF', you can be
sure that it will fit in a `char' variable without loss of information.
-- Function: int fgetc (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function reads the next character as an `unsigned char' from
the stream STREAM and returns its value, converted to an `int'.
If an end-of-file condition or read error occurs, `EOF' is
returned instead.
-- Function: wint_t fgetwc (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function reads the next wide character from the stream STREAM
and returns its value. If an end-of-file condition or read error
occurs, `WEOF' is returned instead.
-- Function: int fgetc_unlocked (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe
corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fgetc_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `fgetc'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
-- Function: wint_t fgetwc_unlocked (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe
corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fgetwc_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `fgetwc'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
This function is a GNU extension.
-- Function: int getc (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This is just like `fgetc', except that it is permissible (and
typical) for it to be implemented as a macro that evaluates the
STREAM argument more than once. `getc' is often highly optimized,
so it is usually the best function to use to read a single
character.
-- Function: wint_t getwc (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This is just like `fgetwc', except that it is permissible for it to
be implemented as a macro that evaluates the STREAM argument more
than once. `getwc' can be highly optimized, so it is usually the
best function to use to read a single wide character.
-- Function: int getc_unlocked (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe
corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `getc_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `getc' function
except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
-- Function: wint_t getwc_unlocked (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe
corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `getwc_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `getwc'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
This function is a GNU extension.
-- Function: int getchar (void)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `getchar' function is equivalent to `getc' with `stdin' as the
value of the STREAM argument.
-- Function: wint_t getwchar (void)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `getwchar' function is equivalent to `getwc' with `stdin' as
the value of the STREAM argument.
-- Function: int getchar_unlocked (void)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:stdin | AS-Unsafe corrupt |
AC-Unsafe corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `getchar_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `getchar'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
-- Function: wint_t getwchar_unlocked (void)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:stdin | AS-Unsafe corrupt |
AC-Unsafe corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `getwchar_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `getwchar'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
This function is a GNU extension.
Here is an example of a function that does input using `fgetc'. It
would work just as well using `getc' instead, or using `getchar ()'
instead of `fgetc (stdin)'. The code would also work the same for the
wide character stream functions.
int
y_or_n_p (const char *question)
{
fputs (question, stdout);
while (1)
{
int c, answer;
/* Write a space to separate answer from question. */
fputc (' ', stdout);
/* Read the first character of the line.
This should be the answer character, but might not be. */
c = tolower (fgetc (stdin));
answer = c;
/* Discard rest of input line. */
while (c != '\n' && c != EOF)
c = fgetc (stdin);
/* Obey the answer if it was valid. */
if (answer == 'y')
return 1;
if (answer == 'n')
return 0;
/* Answer was invalid: ask for valid answer. */
fputs ("Please answer y or n:", stdout);
}
}
-- Function: int getw (FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function reads a word (that is, an `int') from STREAM. It's
provided for compatibility with SVID. We recommend you use
`fread' instead (*note Block Input/Output::). Unlike `getc', any
`int' value could be a valid result. `getw' returns `EOF' when it
encounters end-of-file or an error, but there is no way to
distinguish this from an input word with value -1.

File: libc.info, Node: Line Input, Next: Unreading, Prev: Character Input, Up: I/O on Streams
12.9 Line-Oriented Input
========================
Since many programs interpret input on the basis of lines, it is
convenient to have functions to read a line of text from a stream.
Standard C has functions to do this, but they aren't very safe: null
characters and even (for `gets') long lines can confuse them. So the
GNU C Library provides the nonstandard `getline' function that makes it
easy to read lines reliably.
Another GNU extension, `getdelim', generalizes `getline'. It reads
a delimited record, defined as everything through the next occurrence
of a specified delimiter character.
All these functions are declared in `stdio.h'.
-- Function: ssize_t getline (char **LINEPTR, size_t *N, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap | AC-Unsafe lock
corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function reads an entire line from STREAM, storing the text
(including the newline and a terminating null character) in a
buffer and storing the buffer address in `*LINEPTR'.
Before calling `getline', you should place in `*LINEPTR' the
address of a buffer `*N' bytes long, allocated with `malloc'. If
this buffer is long enough to hold the line, `getline' stores the
line in this buffer. Otherwise, `getline' makes the buffer bigger
using `realloc', storing the new buffer address back in `*LINEPTR'
and the increased size back in `*N'. *Note Unconstrained
Allocation::.
If you set `*LINEPTR' to a null pointer, and `*N' to zero, before
the call, then `getline' allocates the initial buffer for you by
calling `malloc'.
In either case, when `getline' returns, `*LINEPTR' is a `char *'
which points to the text of the line.
When `getline' is successful, it returns the number of characters
read (including the newline, but not including the terminating
null). This value enables you to distinguish null characters that
are part of the line from the null character inserted as a
terminator.
This function is a GNU extension, but it is the recommended way to
read lines from a stream. The alternative standard functions are
unreliable.
If an error occurs or end of file is reached without any bytes
read, `getline' returns `-1'.
-- Function: ssize_t getdelim (char **LINEPTR, size_t *N, int
DELIMITER, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap | AC-Unsafe lock
corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function is like `getline' except that the character which
tells it to stop reading is not necessarily newline. The argument
DELIMITER specifies the delimiter character; `getdelim' keeps
reading until it sees that character (or end of file).
The text is stored in LINEPTR, including the delimiter character
and a terminating null. Like `getline', `getdelim' makes LINEPTR
bigger if it isn't big enough.
`getline' is in fact implemented in terms of `getdelim', just like
this:
ssize_t
getline (char **lineptr, size_t *n, FILE *stream)
{
return getdelim (lineptr, n, '\n', stream);
}
-- Function: char * fgets (char *S, int COUNT, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fgets' function reads characters from the stream STREAM up to
and including a newline character and stores them in the string S,
adding a null character to mark the end of the string. You must
supply COUNT characters worth of space in S, but the number of
characters read is at most COUNT - 1. The extra character space
is used to hold the null character at the end of the string.
If the system is already at end of file when you call `fgets', then
the contents of the array S are unchanged and a null pointer is
returned. A null pointer is also returned if a read error occurs.
Otherwise, the return value is the pointer S.
*Warning:* If the input data has a null character, you can't tell.
So don't use `fgets' unless you know the data cannot contain a
null. Don't use it to read files edited by the user because, if
the user inserts a null character, you should either handle it
properly or print a clear error message. We recommend using
`getline' instead of `fgets'.
-- Function: wchar_t * fgetws (wchar_t *WS, int COUNT, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fgetws' function reads wide characters from the stream STREAM
up to and including a newline character and stores them in the
string WS, adding a null wide character to mark the end of the
string. You must supply COUNT wide characters worth of space in
WS, but the number of characters read is at most COUNT - 1. The
extra character space is used to hold the null wide character at
the end of the string.
If the system is already at end of file when you call `fgetws',
then the contents of the array WS are unchanged and a null pointer
is returned. A null pointer is also returned if a read error
occurs. Otherwise, the return value is the pointer WS.
*Warning:* If the input data has a null wide character (which are
null bytes in the input stream), you can't tell. So don't use
`fgetws' unless you know the data cannot contain a null. Don't use
it to read files edited by the user because, if the user inserts a
null character, you should either handle it properly or print a
clear error message.
-- Function: char * fgets_unlocked (char *S, int COUNT, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe
corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fgets_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `fgets'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
This function is a GNU extension.
-- Function: wchar_t * fgetws_unlocked (wchar_t *WS, int COUNT, FILE
*STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe
corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fgetws_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `fgetws'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
This function is a GNU extension.
-- Deprecated function: char * gets (char *S)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The function `gets' reads characters from the stream `stdin' up to
the next newline character, and stores them in the string S. The
newline character is discarded (note that this differs from the
behavior of `fgets', which copies the newline character into the
string). If `gets' encounters a read error or end-of-file, it
returns a null pointer; otherwise it returns S.
*Warning:* The `gets' function is *very dangerous* because it
provides no protection against overflowing the string S. The GNU
C Library includes it for compatibility only. You should *always*
use `fgets' or `getline' instead. To remind you of this, the
linker (if using GNU `ld') will issue a warning whenever you use
`gets'.

File: libc.info, Node: Unreading, Next: Block Input/Output, Prev: Line Input, Up: I/O on Streams
12.10 Unreading
===============
In parser programs it is often useful to examine the next character in
the input stream without removing it from the stream. This is called
"peeking ahead" at the input because your program gets a glimpse of the
input it will read next.
Using stream I/O, you can peek ahead at input by first reading it and
then "unreading" it (also called "pushing it back" on the stream).
Unreading a character makes it available to be input again from the
stream, by the next call to `fgetc' or other input function on that
stream.
* Menu:
* Unreading Idea:: An explanation of unreading with pictures.
* How Unread:: How to call `ungetc' to do unreading.

File: libc.info, Node: Unreading Idea, Next: How Unread, Up: Unreading
12.10.1 What Unreading Means
----------------------------
Here is a pictorial explanation of unreading. Suppose you have a
stream reading a file that contains just six characters, the letters
`foobar'. Suppose you have read three characters so far. The
situation looks like this:
f o o b a r
^
so the next input character will be `b'.
If instead of reading `b' you unread the letter `o', you get a
situation like this:
f o o b a r
|
o--
^
so that the next input characters will be `o' and `b'.
If you unread `9' instead of `o', you get this situation:
f o o b a r
|
9--
^
so that the next input characters will be `9' and `b'.

File: libc.info, Node: How Unread, Prev: Unreading Idea, Up: Unreading
12.10.2 Using `ungetc' To Do Unreading
--------------------------------------
The function to unread a character is called `ungetc', because it
reverses the action of `getc'.
-- Function: int ungetc (int C, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `ungetc' function pushes back the character C onto the input
stream STREAM. So the next input from STREAM will read C before
anything else.
If C is `EOF', `ungetc' does nothing and just returns `EOF'. This
lets you call `ungetc' with the return value of `getc' without
needing to check for an error from `getc'.
The character that you push back doesn't have to be the same as
the last character that was actually read from the stream. In
fact, it isn't necessary to actually read any characters from the
stream before unreading them with `ungetc'! But that is a strange
way to write a program; usually `ungetc' is used only to unread a
character that was just read from the same stream. The GNU C
Library supports this even on files opened in binary mode, but
other systems might not.
The GNU C Library only supports one character of pushback--in other
words, it does not work to call `ungetc' twice without doing input
in between. Other systems might let you push back multiple
characters; then reading from the stream retrieves the characters
in the reverse order that they were pushed.
Pushing back characters doesn't alter the file; only the internal
buffering for the stream is affected. If a file positioning
function (such as `fseek', `fseeko' or `rewind'; *note File
Positioning::) is called, any pending pushed-back characters are
discarded.
Unreading a character on a stream that is at end of file clears the
end-of-file indicator for the stream, because it makes the
character of input available. After you read that character,
trying to read again will encounter end of file.
-- Function: wint_t ungetwc (wint_t WC, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `ungetwc' function behaves just like `ungetc' just that it
pushes back a wide character.
Here is an example showing the use of `getc' and `ungetc' to skip
over whitespace characters. When this function reaches a
non-whitespace character, it unreads that character to be seen again on
the next read operation on the stream.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <ctype.h>
void
skip_whitespace (FILE *stream)
{
int c;
do
/* No need to check for `EOF' because it is not
`isspace', and `ungetc' ignores `EOF'. */
c = getc (stream);
while (isspace (c));
ungetc (c, stream);
}

File: libc.info, Node: Block Input/Output, Next: Formatted Output, Prev: Unreading, Up: I/O on Streams
12.11 Block Input/Output
========================
This section describes how to do input and output operations on blocks
of data. You can use these functions to read and write binary data, as
well as to read and write text in fixed-size blocks instead of by
characters or lines.
Binary files are typically used to read and write blocks of data in
the same format as is used to represent the data in a running program.
In other words, arbitrary blocks of memory--not just character or string
objects--can be written to a binary file, and meaningfully read in
again by the same program.
Storing data in binary form is often considerably more efficient than
using the formatted I/O functions. Also, for floating-point numbers,
the binary form avoids possible loss of precision in the conversion
process. On the other hand, binary files can't be examined or modified
easily using many standard file utilities (such as text editors), and
are not portable between different implementations of the language, or
different kinds of computers.
These functions are declared in `stdio.h'.
-- Function: size_t fread (void *DATA, size_t SIZE, size_t COUNT, FILE
*STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function reads up to COUNT objects of size SIZE into the
array DATA, from the stream STREAM. It returns the number of
objects actually read, which might be less than COUNT if a read
error occurs or the end of the file is reached. This function
returns a value of zero (and doesn't read anything) if either SIZE
or COUNT is zero.
If `fread' encounters end of file in the middle of an object, it
returns the number of complete objects read, and discards the
partial object. Therefore, the stream remains at the actual end
of the file.
-- Function: size_t fread_unlocked (void *DATA, size_t SIZE, size_t
COUNT, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe
corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fread_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `fread'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
This function is a GNU extension.
-- Function: size_t fwrite (const void *DATA, size_t SIZE, size_t
COUNT, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe lock corrupt
| *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function writes up to COUNT objects of size SIZE from the
array DATA, to the stream STREAM. The return value is normally
COUNT, if the call succeeds. Any other value indicates some sort
of error, such as running out of space.
-- Function: size_t fwrite_unlocked (const void *DATA, size_t SIZE,
size_t COUNT, FILE *STREAM)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:stream | AS-Unsafe corrupt | AC-Unsafe
corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `fwrite_unlocked' function is equivalent to the `fwrite'
function except that it does not implicitly lock the stream.
This function is a GNU extension.

File: libc.info, Node: Formatted Output, Next: Customizing Printf, Prev: Block Input/Output, Up: I/O on Streams
12.12 Formatted Output
======================
The functions described in this section (`printf' and related
functions) provide a convenient way to perform formatted output. You
call `printf' with a "format string" or "template string" that
specifies how to format the values of the remaining arguments.
Unless your program is a filter that specifically performs line- or
character-oriented processing, using `printf' or one of the other
related functions described in this section is usually the easiest and
most concise way to perform output. These functions are especially
useful for printing error messages, tables of data, and the like.
* Menu:
* Formatted Output Basics:: Some examples to get you started.
* Output Conversion Syntax:: General syntax of conversion
specifications.
* Table of Output Conversions:: Summary of output conversions and
what they do.
* Integer Conversions:: Details about formatting of integers.
* Floating-Point Conversions:: Details about formatting of
floating-point numbers.
* Other Output Conversions:: Details about formatting of strings,
characters, pointers, and the like.
* Formatted Output Functions:: Descriptions of the actual functions.
* Dynamic Output:: Functions that allocate memory for the output.
* Variable Arguments Output:: `vprintf' and friends.
* Parsing a Template String:: What kinds of args does a given template
call for?
* Example of Parsing:: Sample program using `parse_printf_format'.

File: libc.info, Node: Formatted Output Basics, Next: Output Conversion Syntax, Up: Formatted Output
12.12.1 Formatted Output Basics
-------------------------------
The `printf' function can be used to print any number of arguments.
The template string argument you supply in a call provides information
not only about the number of additional arguments, but also about their
types and what style should be used for printing them.
Ordinary characters in the template string are simply written to the
output stream as-is, while "conversion specifications" introduced by a
`%' character in the template cause subsequent arguments to be
formatted and written to the output stream. For example,
int pct = 37;
char filename[] = "foo.txt";
printf ("Processing of `%s' is %d%% finished.\nPlease be patient.\n",
filename, pct);
produces output like
Processing of `foo.txt' is 37% finished.
Please be patient.
This example shows the use of the `%d' conversion to specify that an
`int' argument should be printed in decimal notation, the `%s'
conversion to specify printing of a string argument, and the `%%'
conversion to print a literal `%' character.
There are also conversions for printing an integer argument as an
unsigned value in octal, decimal, or hexadecimal radix (`%o', `%u', or
`%x', respectively); or as a character value (`%c').
Floating-point numbers can be printed in normal, fixed-point notation
using the `%f' conversion or in exponential notation using the `%e'
conversion. The `%g' conversion uses either `%e' or `%f' format,
depending on what is more appropriate for the magnitude of the
particular number.
You can control formatting more precisely by writing "modifiers"
between the `%' and the character that indicates which conversion to
apply. These slightly alter the ordinary behavior of the conversion.
For example, most conversion specifications permit you to specify a
minimum field width and a flag indicating whether you want the result
left- or right-justified within the field.
The specific flags and modifiers that are permitted and their
interpretation vary depending on the particular conversion. They're all
described in more detail in the following sections. Don't worry if this
all seems excessively complicated at first; you can almost always get
reasonable free-format output without using any of the modifiers at all.
The modifiers are mostly used to make the output look "prettier" in
tables.

File: libc.info, Node: Output Conversion Syntax, Next: Table of Output Conversions, Prev: Formatted Output Basics, Up: Formatted Output
12.12.2 Output Conversion Syntax
--------------------------------
This section provides details about the precise syntax of conversion
specifications that can appear in a `printf' template string.
Characters in the template string that are not part of a conversion
specification are printed as-is to the output stream. Multibyte
character sequences (*note Character Set Handling::) are permitted in a
template string.
The conversion specifications in a `printf' template string have the
general form:
% [ PARAM-NO $] FLAGS WIDTH [ . PRECISION ] TYPE CONVERSION
or
% [ PARAM-NO $] FLAGS WIDTH . * [ PARAM-NO $] TYPE CONVERSION
For example, in the conversion specifier `%-10.8ld', the `-' is a
flag, `10' specifies the field width, the precision is `8', the letter
`l' is a type modifier, and `d' specifies the conversion style. (This
particular type specifier says to print a `long int' argument in
decimal notation, with a minimum of 8 digits left-justified in a field
at least 10 characters wide.)
In more detail, output conversion specifications consist of an
initial `%' character followed in sequence by:
* An optional specification of the parameter used for this format.
Normally the parameters to the `printf' function are assigned to
the formats in the order of appearance in the format string. But
in some situations (such as message translation) this is not
desirable and this extension allows an explicit parameter to be
specified.
The PARAM-NO parts of the format must be integers in the range of
1 to the maximum number of arguments present to the function call.
Some implementations limit this number to a certainly upper bound.
The exact limit can be retrieved by the following constant.
-- Macro: NL_ARGMAX
The value of `NL_ARGMAX' is the maximum value allowed for the
specification of a positional parameter in a `printf' call.
The actual value in effect at runtime can be retrieved by
using `sysconf' using the `_SC_NL_ARGMAX' parameter *note
Sysconf Definition::.
Some system have a quite low limit such as 9 for System V
systems. The GNU C Library has no real limit.
If any of the formats has a specification for the parameter
position all of them in the format string shall have one.
Otherwise the behavior is undefined.
* Zero or more "flag characters" that modify the normal behavior of
the conversion specification.
* An optional decimal integer specifying the "minimum field width".
If the normal conversion produces fewer characters than this, the
field is padded with spaces to the specified width. This is a
_minimum_ value; if the normal conversion produces more characters
than this, the field is _not_ truncated. Normally, the output is
right-justified within the field.
You can also specify a field width of `*'. This means that the
next argument in the argument list (before the actual value to be
printed) is used as the field width. The value must be an `int'.
If the value is negative, this means to set the `-' flag (see
below) and to use the absolute value as the field width.
* An optional "precision" to specify the number of digits to be
written for the numeric conversions. If the precision is
specified, it consists of a period (`.') followed optionally by a
decimal integer (which defaults to zero if omitted).
You can also specify a precision of `*'. This means that the next
argument in the argument list (before the actual value to be
printed) is used as the precision. The value must be an `int',
and is ignored if it is negative. If you specify `*' for both the
field width and precision, the field width argument precedes the
precision argument. Other C library versions may not recognize
this syntax.
* An optional "type modifier character", which is used to specify the
data type of the corresponding argument if it differs from the
default type. (For example, the integer conversions assume a type
of `int', but you can specify `h', `l', or `L' for other integer
types.)
* A character that specifies the conversion to be applied.
The exact options that are permitted and how they are interpreted
vary between the different conversion specifiers. See the descriptions
of the individual conversions for information about the particular
options that they use.
With the `-Wformat' option, the GNU C compiler checks calls to
`printf' and related functions. It examines the format string and
verifies that the correct number and types of arguments are supplied.
There is also a GNU C syntax to tell the compiler that a function you
write uses a `printf'-style format string. *Note Declaring Attributes
of Functions: (gcc.info)Function Attributes, for more information.

File: libc.info, Node: Table of Output Conversions, Next: Integer Conversions, Prev: Output Conversion Syntax, Up: Formatted Output
12.12.3 Table of Output Conversions
-----------------------------------
Here is a table summarizing what all the different conversions do:
`%d', `%i'
Print an integer as a signed decimal number. *Note Integer
Conversions::, for details. `%d' and `%i' are synonymous for
output, but are different when used with `scanf' for input (*note
Table of Input Conversions::).
`%o'
Print an integer as an unsigned octal number. *Note Integer
Conversions::, for details.
`%u'
Print an integer as an unsigned decimal number. *Note Integer
Conversions::, for details.
`%x', `%X'
Print an integer as an unsigned hexadecimal number. `%x' uses
lower-case letters and `%X' uses upper-case. *Note Integer
Conversions::, for details.
`%f'
Print a floating-point number in normal (fixed-point) notation.
*Note Floating-Point Conversions::, for details.
`%e', `%E'
Print a floating-point number in exponential notation. `%e' uses
lower-case letters and `%E' uses upper-case. *Note Floating-Point
Conversions::, for details.
`%g', `%G'
Print a floating-point number in either normal or exponential
notation, whichever is more appropriate for its magnitude. `%g'
uses lower-case letters and `%G' uses upper-case. *Note
Floating-Point Conversions::, for details.
`%a', `%A'
Print a floating-point number in a hexadecimal fractional notation
which the exponent to base 2 represented in decimal digits. `%a'
uses lower-case letters and `%A' uses upper-case. *Note
Floating-Point Conversions::, for details.
`%c'
Print a single character. *Note Other Output Conversions::.
`%C'
This is an alias for `%lc' which is supported for compatibility
with the Unix standard.
`%s'
Print a string. *Note Other Output Conversions::.
`%S'
This is an alias for `%ls' which is supported for compatibility
with the Unix standard.
`%p'
Print the value of a pointer. *Note Other Output Conversions::.
`%n'
Get the number of characters printed so far. *Note Other Output
Conversions::. Note that this conversion specification never
produces any output.
`%m'
Print the string corresponding to the value of `errno'. (This is
a GNU extension.) *Note Other Output Conversions::.
`%%'
Print a literal `%' character. *Note Other Output Conversions::.
If the syntax of a conversion specification is invalid, unpredictable
things will happen, so don't do this. If there aren't enough function
arguments provided to supply values for all the conversion
specifications in the template string, or if the arguments are not of
the correct types, the results are unpredictable. If you supply more
arguments than conversion specifications, the extra argument values are
simply ignored; this is sometimes useful.

File: libc.info, Node: Integer Conversions, Next: Floating-Point Conversions, Prev: Table of Output Conversions, Up: Formatted Output
12.12.4 Integer Conversions
---------------------------
This section describes the options for the `%d', `%i', `%o', `%u',
`%x', and `%X' conversion specifications. These conversions print
integers in various formats.
The `%d' and `%i' conversion specifications both print an `int'
argument as a signed decimal number; while `%o', `%u', and `%x' print
the argument as an unsigned octal, decimal, or hexadecimal number
(respectively). The `%X' conversion specification is just like `%x'
except that it uses the characters `ABCDEF' as digits instead of
`abcdef'.
The following flags are meaningful:
`-'
Left-justify the result in the field (instead of the normal
right-justification).
`+'
For the signed `%d' and `%i' conversions, print a plus sign if the
value is positive.
` '
For the signed `%d' and `%i' conversions, if the result doesn't
start with a plus or minus sign, prefix it with a space character
instead. Since the `+' flag ensures that the result includes a
sign, this flag is ignored if you supply both of them.
`#'
For the `%o' conversion, this forces the leading digit to be `0',
as if by increasing the precision. For `%x' or `%X', this
prefixes a leading `0x' or `0X' (respectively) to the result.
This doesn't do anything useful for the `%d', `%i', or `%u'
conversions. Using this flag produces output which can be parsed
by the `strtoul' function (*note Parsing of Integers::) and
`scanf' with the `%i' conversion (*note Numeric Input
Conversions::).
`''
Separate the digits into groups as specified by the locale
specified for the `LC_NUMERIC' category; *note General Numeric::.
This flag is a GNU extension.
`0'
Pad the field with zeros instead of spaces. The zeros are placed
after any indication of sign or base. This flag is ignored if the
`-' flag is also specified, or if a precision is specified.
If a precision is supplied, it specifies the minimum number of
digits to appear; leading zeros are produced if necessary. If you
don't specify a precision, the number is printed with as many digits as
it needs. If you convert a value of zero with an explicit precision of
zero, then no characters at all are produced.
Without a type modifier, the corresponding argument is treated as an
`int' (for the signed conversions `%i' and `%d') or `unsigned int' (for
the unsigned conversions `%o', `%u', `%x', and `%X'). Recall that
since `printf' and friends are variadic, any `char' and `short'
arguments are automatically converted to `int' by the default argument
promotions. For arguments of other integer types, you can use these
modifiers:
`hh'
Specifies that the argument is a `signed char' or `unsigned char',
as appropriate. A `char' argument is converted to an `int' or
`unsigned int' by the default argument promotions anyway, but the
`h' modifier says to convert it back to a `char' again.
This modifier was introduced in ISO C99.
`h'
Specifies that the argument is a `short int' or `unsigned short
int', as appropriate. A `short' argument is converted to an `int'
or `unsigned int' by the default argument promotions anyway, but
the `h' modifier says to convert it back to a `short' again.
`j'
Specifies that the argument is a `intmax_t' or `uintmax_t', as
appropriate.
This modifier was introduced in ISO C99.
`l'
Specifies that the argument is a `long int' or `unsigned long
int', as appropriate. Two `l' characters is like the `L'
modifier, below.
If used with `%c' or `%s' the corresponding parameter is
considered as a wide character or wide character string
respectively. This use of `l' was introduced in Amendment 1 to
ISO C90.
`L'
`ll'
`q'
Specifies that the argument is a `long long int'. (This type is
an extension supported by the GNU C compiler. On systems that
don't support extra-long integers, this is the same as `long int'.)
The `q' modifier is another name for the same thing, which comes
from 4.4 BSD; a `long long int' is sometimes called a "quad" `int'.
`t'
Specifies that the argument is a `ptrdiff_t'.
This modifier was introduced in ISO C99.
`z'
`Z'
Specifies that the argument is a `size_t'.
`z' was introduced in ISO C99. `Z' is a GNU extension predating
this addition and should not be used in new code.
Here is an example. Using the template string:
"|%5d|%-5d|%+5d|%+-5d|% 5d|%05d|%5.0d|%5.2d|%d|\n"
to print numbers using the different options for the `%d' conversion
gives results like:
| 0|0 | +0|+0 | 0|00000| | 00|0|
| 1|1 | +1|+1 | 1|00001| 1| 01|1|
| -1|-1 | -1|-1 | -1|-0001| -1| -01|-1|
|100000|100000|+100000|+100000| 100000|100000|100000|100000|100000|
In particular, notice what happens in the last case where the number
is too large to fit in the minimum field width specified.
Here are some more examples showing how unsigned integers print under
various format options, using the template string:
"|%5u|%5o|%5x|%5X|%#5o|%#5x|%#5X|%#10.8x|\n"
| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 0| 00000000|
| 1| 1| 1| 1| 01| 0x1| 0X1|0x00000001|
|100000|303240|186a0|186A0|0303240|0x186a0|0X186A0|0x000186a0|

File: libc.info, Node: Floating-Point Conversions, Next: Other Output Conversions, Prev: Integer Conversions, Up: Formatted Output
12.12.5 Floating-Point Conversions
----------------------------------
This section discusses the conversion specifications for floating-point
numbers: the `%f', `%e', `%E', `%g', and `%G' conversions.
The `%f' conversion prints its argument in fixed-point notation,
producing output of the form [`-']DDD`.'DDD, where the number of digits
following the decimal point is controlled by the precision you specify.
The `%e' conversion prints its argument in exponential notation,
producing output of the form [`-']D`.'DDD`e'[`+'|`-']DD. Again, the
number of digits following the decimal point is controlled by the
precision. The exponent always contains at least two digits. The `%E'
conversion is similar but the exponent is marked with the letter `E'
instead of `e'.
The `%g' and `%G' conversions print the argument in the style of
`%e' or `%E' (respectively) if the exponent would be less than -4 or
greater than or equal to the precision; otherwise they use the `%f'
style. A precision of `0', is taken as 1. Trailing zeros are removed
from the fractional portion of the result and a decimal-point character
appears only if it is followed by a digit.
The `%a' and `%A' conversions are meant for representing
floating-point numbers exactly in textual form so that they can be
exchanged as texts between different programs and/or machines. The
numbers are represented is the form [`-']`0x'H`.'HHH`p'[`+'|`-']DD. At
the left of the decimal-point character exactly one digit is print.
This character is only `0' if the number is denormalized. Otherwise
the value is unspecified; it is implementation dependent how many bits
are used. The number of hexadecimal digits on the right side of the
decimal-point character is equal to the precision. If the precision is
zero it is determined to be large enough to provide an exact
representation of the number (or it is large enough to distinguish two
adjacent values if the `FLT_RADIX' is not a power of 2, *note Floating
Point Parameters::). For the `%a' conversion lower-case characters are
used to represent the hexadecimal number and the prefix and exponent
sign are printed as `0x' and `p' respectively. Otherwise upper-case
characters are used and `0X' and `P' are used for the representation of
prefix and exponent string. The exponent to the base of two is printed
as a decimal number using at least one digit but at most as many digits
as necessary to represent the value exactly.
If the value to be printed represents infinity or a NaN, the output
is [`-']`inf' or `nan' respectively if the conversion specifier is
`%a', `%e', `%f', or `%g' and it is [`-']`INF' or `NAN' respectively if
the conversion is `%A', `%E', or `%G'.
The following flags can be used to modify the behavior:
`-'
Left-justify the result in the field. Normally the result is
right-justified.
`+'
Always include a plus or minus sign in the result.
` '
If the result doesn't start with a plus or minus sign, prefix it
with a space instead. Since the `+' flag ensures that the result
includes a sign, this flag is ignored if you supply both of them.
`#'
Specifies that the result should always include a decimal point,
even if no digits follow it. For the `%g' and `%G' conversions,
this also forces trailing zeros after the decimal point to be left
in place where they would otherwise be removed.
`''
Separate the digits of the integer part of the result into groups
as specified by the locale specified for the `LC_NUMERIC' category;
*note General Numeric::. This flag is a GNU extension.
`0'
Pad the field with zeros instead of spaces; the zeros are placed
after any sign. This flag is ignored if the `-' flag is also
specified.
The precision specifies how many digits follow the decimal-point
character for the `%f', `%e', and `%E' conversions. For these
conversions, the default precision is `6'. If the precision is
explicitly `0', this suppresses the decimal point character entirely.
For the `%g' and `%G' conversions, the precision specifies how many
significant digits to print. Significant digits are the first digit
before the decimal point, and all the digits after it. If the
precision is `0' or not specified for `%g' or `%G', it is treated like
a value of `1'. If the value being printed cannot be expressed
accurately in the specified number of digits, the value is rounded to
the nearest number that fits.
Without a type modifier, the floating-point conversions use an
argument of type `double'. (By the default argument promotions, any
`float' arguments are automatically converted to `double'.) The
following type modifier is supported:
`L'
An uppercase `L' specifies that the argument is a `long double'.
Here are some examples showing how numbers print using the various
floating-point conversions. All of the numbers were printed using this
template string:
"|%13.4a|%13.4f|%13.4e|%13.4g|\n"
Here is the output:
| 0x0.0000p+0| 0.0000| 0.0000e+00| 0|
| 0x1.0000p-1| 0.5000| 5.0000e-01| 0.5|
| 0x1.0000p+0| 1.0000| 1.0000e+00| 1|
| -0x1.0000p+0| -1.0000| -1.0000e+00| -1|
| 0x1.9000p+6| 100.0000| 1.0000e+02| 100|
| 0x1.f400p+9| 1000.0000| 1.0000e+03| 1000|
| 0x1.3880p+13| 10000.0000| 1.0000e+04| 1e+04|
| 0x1.81c8p+13| 12345.0000| 1.2345e+04| 1.234e+04|
| 0x1.86a0p+16| 100000.0000| 1.0000e+05| 1e+05|
| 0x1.e240p+16| 123456.0000| 1.2346e+05| 1.235e+05|
Notice how the `%g' conversion drops trailing zeros.

File: libc.info, Node: Other Output Conversions, Next: Formatted Output Functions, Prev: Floating-Point Conversions, Up: Formatted Output
12.12.6 Other Output Conversions
--------------------------------
This section describes miscellaneous conversions for `printf'.
The `%c' conversion prints a single character. In case there is no
`l' modifier the `int' argument is first converted to an `unsigned
char'. Then, if used in a wide stream function, the character is
converted into the corresponding wide character. The `-' flag can be
used to specify left-justification in the field, but no other flags are
defined, and no precision or type modifier can be given. For example:
printf ("%c%c%c%c%c", 'h', 'e', 'l', 'l', 'o');
prints `hello'.
If there is a `l' modifier present the argument is expected to be of
type `wint_t'. If used in a multibyte function the wide character is
converted into a multibyte character before being added to the output.
In this case more than one output byte can be produced.
The `%s' conversion prints a string. If no `l' modifier is present
the corresponding argument must be of type `char *' (or `const char
*'). If used in a wide stream function the string is first converted
in a wide character string. A precision can be specified to indicate
the maximum number of characters to write; otherwise characters in the
string up to but not including the terminating null character are
written to the output stream. The `-' flag can be used to specify
left-justification in the field, but no other flags or type modifiers
are defined for this conversion. For example:
printf ("%3s%-6s", "no", "where");
prints ` nowhere '.
If there is a `l' modifier present the argument is expected to be of
type `wchar_t' (or `const wchar_t *').
If you accidentally pass a null pointer as the argument for a `%s'
conversion, the GNU C Library prints it as `(null)'. We think this is
more useful than crashing. But it's not good practice to pass a null
argument intentionally.
The `%m' conversion prints the string corresponding to the error
code in `errno'. *Note Error Messages::. Thus:
fprintf (stderr, "can't open `%s': %m\n", filename);
is equivalent to:
fprintf (stderr, "can't open `%s': %s\n", filename, strerror (errno));
The `%m' conversion is a GNU C Library extension.
The `%p' conversion prints a pointer value. The corresponding
argument must be of type `void *'. In practice, you can use any type
of pointer.
In the GNU C Library, non-null pointers are printed as unsigned
integers, as if a `%#x' conversion were used. Null pointers print as
`(nil)'. (Pointers might print differently in other systems.)
For example:
printf ("%p", "testing");
prints `0x' followed by a hexadecimal number--the address of the string
constant `"testing"'. It does not print the word `testing'.
You can supply the `-' flag with the `%p' conversion to specify
left-justification, but no other flags, precision, or type modifiers
are defined.
The `%n' conversion is unlike any of the other output conversions.
It uses an argument which must be a pointer to an `int', but instead of
printing anything it stores the number of characters printed so far by
this call at that location. The `h' and `l' type modifiers are
permitted to specify that the argument is of type `short int *' or
`long int *' instead of `int *', but no flags, field width, or
precision are permitted.
For example,
int nchar;
printf ("%d %s%n\n", 3, "bears", &nchar);
prints:
3 bears
and sets `nchar' to `7', because `3 bears' is seven characters.
The `%%' conversion prints a literal `%' character. This conversion
doesn't use an argument, and no flags, field width, precision, or type
modifiers are permitted.

File: libc.info, Node: Formatted Output Functions, Next: Dynamic Output, Prev: Other Output Conversions, Up: Formatted Output
12.12.7 Formatted Output Functions
----------------------------------
This section describes how to call `printf' and related functions.
Prototypes for these functions are in the header file `stdio.h'.
Because these functions take a variable number of arguments, you _must_
declare prototypes for them before using them. Of course, the easiest
way to make sure you have all the right prototypes is to just include
`stdio.h'.
-- Function: int printf (const char *TEMPLATE, ...)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap | AC-Unsafe
mem lock corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `printf' function prints the optional arguments under the
control of the template string TEMPLATE to the stream `stdout'.
It returns the number of characters printed, or a negative value
if there was an output error.
-- Function: int wprintf (const wchar_t *TEMPLATE, ...)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap | AC-Unsafe
mem lock corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `wprintf' function prints the optional arguments under the
control of the wide template string TEMPLATE to the stream
`stdout'. It returns the number of wide characters printed, or a
negative value if there was an output error.
-- Function: int fprintf (FILE *STREAM, const char *TEMPLATE, ...)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap | AC-Unsafe
mem lock corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function is just like `printf', except that the output is
written to the stream STREAM instead of `stdout'.
-- Function: int fwprintf (FILE *STREAM, const wchar_t *TEMPLATE, ...)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap | AC-Unsafe
mem lock corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function is just like `wprintf', except that the output is
written to the stream STREAM instead of `stdout'.
-- Function: int sprintf (char *S, const char *TEMPLATE, ...)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This is like `printf', except that the output is stored in the
character array S instead of written to a stream. A null
character is written to mark the end of the string.
The `sprintf' function returns the number of characters stored in
the array S, not including the terminating null character.
The behavior of this function is undefined if copying takes place
between objects that overlap--for example, if S is also given as
an argument to be printed under control of the `%s' conversion.
*Note Copying and Concatenation::.
*Warning:* The `sprintf' function can be *dangerous* because it
can potentially output more characters than can fit in the
allocation size of the string S. Remember that the field width
given in a conversion specification is only a _minimum_ value.
To avoid this problem, you can use `snprintf' or `asprintf',
described below.
-- Function: int swprintf (wchar_t *S, size_t SIZE, const wchar_t
*TEMPLATE, ...)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This is like `wprintf', except that the output is stored in the
wide character array WS instead of written to a stream. A null
wide character is written to mark the end of the string. The SIZE
argument specifies the maximum number of characters to produce.
The trailing null character is counted towards this limit, so you
should allocate at least SIZE wide characters for the string WS.
The return value is the number of characters generated for the
given input, excluding the trailing null. If not all output fits
into the provided buffer a negative value is returned. You should
try again with a bigger output string. _Note:_ this is different
from how `snprintf' handles this situation.
Note that the corresponding narrow stream function takes fewer
parameters. `swprintf' in fact corresponds to the `snprintf'
function. Since the `sprintf' function can be dangerous and should
be avoided the ISO C committee refused to make the same mistake
again and decided to not define a function exactly corresponding to
`sprintf'.
-- Function: int snprintf (char *S, size_t SIZE, const char *TEMPLATE,
...)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `snprintf' function is similar to `sprintf', except that the
SIZE argument specifies the maximum number of characters to
produce. The trailing null character is counted towards this
limit, so you should allocate at least SIZE characters for the
string S. If SIZE is zero, nothing, not even the null byte, shall
be written and S may be a null pointer.
The return value is the number of characters which would be
generated for the given input, excluding the trailing null. If
this value is greater or equal to SIZE, not all characters from
the result have been stored in S. You should try again with a
bigger output string. Here is an example of doing this:
/* Construct a message describing the value of a variable
whose name is NAME and whose value is VALUE. */
char *
make_message (char *name, char *value)
{
/* Guess we need no more than 100 chars of space. */
int size = 100;
char *buffer = (char *) xmalloc (size);
int nchars;
if (buffer == NULL)
return NULL;
/* Try to print in the allocated space. */
nchars = snprintf (buffer, size, "value of %s is %s",
name, value);
if (nchars >= size)
{
/* Reallocate buffer now that we know
how much space is needed. */
size = nchars + 1;
buffer = (char *) xrealloc (buffer, size);
if (buffer != NULL)
/* Try again. */
snprintf (buffer, size, "value of %s is %s",
name, value);
}
/* The last call worked, return the string. */
return buffer;
}
In practice, it is often easier just to use `asprintf', below.
*Attention:* In versions of the GNU C Library prior to 2.1 the
return value is the number of characters stored, not including the
terminating null; unless there was not enough space in S to store
the result in which case `-1' is returned. This was changed in
order to comply with the ISO C99 standard.

File: libc.info, Node: Dynamic Output, Next: Variable Arguments Output, Prev: Formatted Output Functions, Up: Formatted Output
12.12.8 Dynamically Allocating Formatted Output
-----------------------------------------------
The functions in this section do formatted output and place the results
in dynamically allocated memory.
-- Function: int asprintf (char **PTR, const char *TEMPLATE, ...)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function is similar to `sprintf', except that it dynamically
allocates a string (as with `malloc'; *note Unconstrained
Allocation::) to hold the output, instead of putting the output in
a buffer you allocate in advance. The PTR argument should be the
address of a `char *' object, and a successful call to `asprintf'
stores a pointer to the newly allocated string at that location.
The return value is the number of characters allocated for the
buffer, or less than zero if an error occurred. Usually this means
that the buffer could not be allocated.
Here is how to use `asprintf' to get the same result as the
`snprintf' example, but more easily:
/* Construct a message describing the value of a variable
whose name is NAME and whose value is VALUE. */
char *
make_message (char *name, char *value)
{
char *result;
if (asprintf (&result, "value of %s is %s", name, value) < 0)
return NULL;
return result;
}
-- Function: int obstack_printf (struct obstack *OBSTACK, const char
*TEMPLATE, ...)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:obstack locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap
| AC-Unsafe corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function is similar to `asprintf', except that it uses the
obstack OBSTACK to allocate the space. *Note Obstacks::.
The characters are written onto the end of the current object. To
get at them, you must finish the object with `obstack_finish'
(*note Growing Objects::).

File: libc.info, Node: Variable Arguments Output, Next: Parsing a Template String, Prev: Dynamic Output, Up: Formatted Output
12.12.9 Variable Arguments Output Functions
-------------------------------------------
The functions `vprintf' and friends are provided so that you can define
your own variadic `printf'-like functions that make use of the same
internals as the built-in formatted output functions.
The most natural way to define such functions would be to use a
language construct to say, "Call `printf' and pass this template plus
all of my arguments after the first five." But there is no way to do
this in C, and it would be hard to provide a way, since at the C
language level there is no way to tell how many arguments your function
received.
Since that method is impossible, we provide alternative functions,
the `vprintf' series, which lets you pass a `va_list' to describe "all
of my arguments after the first five."
When it is sufficient to define a macro rather than a real function,
the GNU C compiler provides a way to do this much more easily with
macros. For example:
#define myprintf(a, b, c, d, e, rest...) \
printf (mytemplate , ## rest)
*Note Variadic Macros: (cpp)Variadic Macros, for details. But this is
limited to macros, and does not apply to real functions at all.
Before calling `vprintf' or the other functions listed in this
section, you _must_ call `va_start' (*note Variadic Functions::) to
initialize a pointer to the variable arguments. Then you can call
`va_arg' to fetch the arguments that you want to handle yourself. This
advances the pointer past those arguments.
Once your `va_list' pointer is pointing at the argument of your
choice, you are ready to call `vprintf'. That argument and all
subsequent arguments that were passed to your function are used by
`vprintf' along with the template that you specified separately.
In some other systems, the `va_list' pointer may become invalid
after the call to `vprintf', so you must not use `va_arg' after you
call `vprintf'. Instead, you should call `va_end' to retire the
pointer from service. However, you can safely call `va_start' on
another pointer variable and begin fetching the arguments again through
that pointer. Calling `vprintf' does not destroy the argument list of
your function, merely the particular pointer that you passed to it.
GNU C does not have such restrictions. You can safely continue to
fetch arguments from a `va_list' pointer after passing it to `vprintf',
and `va_end' is a no-op. (Note, however, that subsequent `va_arg'
calls will fetch the same arguments which `vprintf' previously used.)
Prototypes for these functions are declared in `stdio.h'.
-- Function: int vprintf (const char *TEMPLATE, va_list AP)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap | AC-Unsafe
mem lock corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function is similar to `printf' except that, instead of taking
a variable number of arguments directly, it takes an argument list
pointer AP.
-- Function: int vwprintf (const wchar_t *TEMPLATE, va_list AP)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap | AC-Unsafe
mem lock corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function is similar to `wprintf' except that, instead of
taking a variable number of arguments directly, it takes an
argument list pointer AP.
-- Function: int vfprintf (FILE *STREAM, const char *TEMPLATE, va_list
AP)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap | AC-Unsafe
mem lock corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This is the equivalent of `fprintf' with the variable argument list
specified directly as for `vprintf'.
-- Function: int vfwprintf (FILE *STREAM, const wchar_t *TEMPLATE,
va_list AP)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap | AC-Unsafe
mem lock corrupt | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This is the equivalent of `fwprintf' with the variable argument
list specified directly as for `vwprintf'.
-- Function: int vsprintf (char *S, const char *TEMPLATE, va_list AP)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This is the equivalent of `sprintf' with the variable argument list
specified directly as for `vprintf'.
-- Function: int vswprintf (wchar_t *S, size_t SIZE, const wchar_t
*TEMPLATE, va_list AP)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This is the equivalent of `swprintf' with the variable argument
list specified directly as for `vwprintf'.
-- Function: int vsnprintf (char *S, size_t SIZE, const char
*TEMPLATE, va_list AP)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This is the equivalent of `snprintf' with the variable argument
list specified directly as for `vprintf'.
-- Function: int vasprintf (char **PTR, const char *TEMPLATE, va_list
AP)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Unsafe heap | AC-Unsafe mem |
*Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `vasprintf' function is the equivalent of `asprintf' with the
variable argument list specified directly as for `vprintf'.
-- Function: int obstack_vprintf (struct obstack *OBSTACK, const char
*TEMPLATE, va_list AP)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe race:obstack locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap
| AC-Unsafe corrupt mem | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
The `obstack_vprintf' function is the equivalent of
`obstack_printf' with the variable argument list specified directly
as for `vprintf'.
Here's an example showing how you might use `vfprintf'. This is a
function that prints error messages to the stream `stderr', along with
a prefix indicating the name of the program (*note Error Messages::,
for a description of `program_invocation_short_name').
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdarg.h>
void
eprintf (const char *template, ...)
{
va_list ap;
extern char *program_invocation_short_name;
fprintf (stderr, "%s: ", program_invocation_short_name);
va_start (ap, template);
vfprintf (stderr, template, ap);
va_end (ap);
}
You could call `eprintf' like this:
eprintf ("file `%s' does not exist\n", filename);
In GNU C, there is a special construct you can use to let the
compiler know that a function uses a `printf'-style format string.
Then it can check the number and types of arguments in each call to the
function, and warn you when they do not match the format string. For
example, take this declaration of `eprintf':
void eprintf (const char *template, ...)
__attribute__ ((format (printf, 1, 2)));
This tells the compiler that `eprintf' uses a format string like
`printf' (as opposed to `scanf'; *note Formatted Input::); the format
string appears as the first argument; and the arguments to satisfy the
format begin with the second. *Note Declaring Attributes of Functions:
(gcc.info)Function Attributes, for more information.

File: libc.info, Node: Parsing a Template String, Next: Example of Parsing, Prev: Variable Arguments Output, Up: Formatted Output
12.12.10 Parsing a Template String
----------------------------------
You can use the function `parse_printf_format' to obtain information
about the number and types of arguments that are expected by a given
template string. This function permits interpreters that provide
interfaces to `printf' to avoid passing along invalid arguments from
the user's program, which could cause a crash.
All the symbols described in this section are declared in the header
file `printf.h'.
-- Function: size_t parse_printf_format (const char *TEMPLATE, size_t
N, int *ARGTYPES)
Preliminary: | MT-Safe locale | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | *Note POSIX
Safety Concepts::.
This function returns information about the number and types of
arguments expected by the `printf' template string TEMPLATE. The
information is stored in the array ARGTYPES; each element of this
array describes one argument. This information is encoded using
the various `PA_' macros, listed below.
The argument N specifies the number of elements in the array
ARGTYPES. This is the maximum number of elements that
`parse_printf_format' will try to write.
`parse_printf_format' returns the total number of arguments
required by TEMPLATE. If this number is greater than N, then the
information returned describes only the first N arguments. If you
want information about additional arguments, allocate a bigger
array and call `parse_printf_format' again.
The argument types are encoded as a combination of a basic type and
modifier flag bits.
-- Macro: int PA_FLAG_MASK
This macro is a bitmask for the type modifier flag bits. You can
write the expression `(argtypes[i] & PA_FLAG_MASK)' to extract
just the flag bits for an argument, or `(argtypes[i] &
~PA_FLAG_MASK)' to extract just the basic type code.
Here are symbolic constants that represent the basic types; they
stand for integer values.
`PA_INT'
This specifies that the base type is `int'.
`PA_CHAR'
This specifies that the base type is `int', cast to `char'.
`PA_STRING'
This specifies that the base type is `char *', a null-terminated
string.
`PA_POINTER'
This specifies that the base type is `void *', an arbitrary
pointer.
`PA_FLOAT'
This specifies that the base type is `float'.
`PA_DOUBLE'
This specifies that the base type is `double'.
`PA_LAST'
You can define additional base types for your own programs as
offsets from `PA_LAST'. For example, if you have data types `foo'
and `bar' with their own specialized `printf' conversions, you
could define encodings for these types as:
#define PA_FOO PA_LAST
#define PA_BAR (PA_LAST + 1)
Here are the flag bits that modify a basic type. They are combined
with the code for the basic type using inclusive-or.
`PA_FLAG_PTR'
If this bit is set, it indicates that the encoded type is a
pointer to the base type, rather than an immediate value. For
example, `PA_INT|PA_FLAG_PTR' represents the type `int *'.
`PA_FLAG_SHORT'
If this bit is set, it indicates that the base type is modified
with `short'. (This corresponds to the `h' type modifier.)
`PA_FLAG_LONG'
If this bit is set, it indicates that the base type is modified
with `long'. (This corresponds to the `l' type modifier.)
`PA_FLAG_LONG_LONG'
If this bit is set, it indicates that the base type is modified
with `long long'. (This corresponds to the `L' type modifier.)
`PA_FLAG_LONG_DOUBLE'
This is a synonym for `PA_FLAG_LONG_LONG', used by convention with
a base type of `PA_DOUBLE' to indicate a type of `long double'.
For an example of using these facilities, see *note Example of
Parsing::.

File: libc.info, Node: Example of Parsing, Prev: Parsing a Template String, Up: Formatted Output
12.12.11 Example of Parsing a Template String
---------------------------------------------
Here is an example of decoding argument types for a format string. We
assume this is part of an interpreter which contains arguments of type
`NUMBER', `CHAR', `STRING' and `STRUCTURE' (and perhaps others which
are not valid here).
/* Test whether the NARGS specified objects
in the vector ARGS are valid
for the format string FORMAT:
if so, return 1.
If not, return 0 after printing an error message. */
int
validate_args (char *format, int nargs, OBJECT *args)
{
int *argtypes;
int nwanted;
/* Get the information about the arguments.
Each conversion specification must be at least two characters
long, so there cannot be more specifications than half the
length of the string. */
argtypes = (int *) alloca (strlen (format) / 2 * sizeof (int));
nwanted = parse_printf_format (string, nelts, argtypes);
/* Check the number of arguments. */
if (nwanted > nargs)
{
error ("too few arguments (at least %d required)", nwanted);
return 0;
}
/* Check the C type wanted for each argument
and see if the object given is suitable. */
for (i = 0; i < nwanted; i++)
{
int wanted;
if (argtypes[i] & PA_FLAG_PTR)
wanted = STRUCTURE;
else
switch (argtypes[i] & ~PA_FLAG_MASK)
{
case PA_INT:
case PA_FLOAT:
case PA_DOUBLE:
wanted = NUMBER;
break;
case PA_CHAR:
wanted = CHAR;
break;
case PA_STRING:
wanted = STRING;
break;
case PA_POINTER:
wanted = STRUCTURE;
break;
}
if (TYPE (args[i]) != wanted)
{
error ("type mismatch for arg number %d", i);
return 0;
}
}
return 1;
}

File: libc.info, Node: Customizing Printf, Next: Formatted Input, Prev: Formatted Output, Up: I/O on Streams
12.13 Customizing `printf'
==========================
The GNU C Library lets you define your own custom conversion specifiers
for `printf' template strings, to teach `printf' clever ways to print
the important data structures of your program.
The way you do this is by registering the conversion with the
function `register_printf_function'; see *note Registering New
Conversions::. One of the arguments you pass to this function is a
pointer to a handler function that produces the actual output; see
*note Defining the Output Handler::, for information on how to write
this function.
You can also install a function that just returns information about
the number and type of arguments expected by the conversion specifier.
*Note Parsing a Template String::, for information about this.
The facilities of this section are declared in the header file
`printf.h'.
* Menu:
* Registering New Conversions:: Using `register_printf_function'
to register a new output conversion.
* Conversion Specifier Options:: The handler must be able to get
the options specified in the
template when it is called.
* Defining the Output Handler:: Defining the handler and arginfo
functions that are passed as arguments
to `register_printf_function'.
* Printf Extension Example:: How to define a `printf'
handler function.
* Predefined Printf Handlers:: Predefined `printf' handlers.
*Portability Note:* The ability to extend the syntax of `printf'
template strings is a GNU extension. ISO standard C has nothing
similar.

File: libc.info, Node: Registering New Conversions, Next: Conversion Specifier Options, Up: Customizing Printf
12.13.1 Registering New Conversions
-----------------------------------
The function to register a new output conversion is
`register_printf_function', declared in `printf.h'.
-- Function: int register_printf_function (int SPEC, printf_function
HANDLER-FUNCTION, printf_arginfo_function ARGINFO-FUNCTION)
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe const:printfext | AS-Unsafe heap lock |
AC-Unsafe mem lock | *Note POSIX Safety Concepts::.
This function defines the conversion specifier character SPEC.
Thus, if SPEC is `'Y'', it defines the conversion `%Y'. You can
redefine the built-in conversions like `%s', but flag characters
like `#' and type modifiers like `l' can never be used as
conversions; calling `register_printf_function' for those
characters has no effect. It is advisable not to use lowercase
letters, since the ISO C standard warns that additional lowercase
letters may be standardized in future editions of the standard.
The HANDLER-FUNCTION is the function called by `printf' and
friends when this conversion appears in a template string. *Note
Defining the Output Handler::, for information about how to define
a function to pass as this argument. If you specify a null
pointer, any existing handler function for SPEC is removed.
The ARGINFO-FUNCTION is the function called by
`parse_printf_format' when this conversion appears in a template
string. *Note Parsing a Template String::, for information about
this.
*Attention:* In the GNU C Library versions before 2.0 the
ARGINFO-FUNCTION function did not need to be installed unless the
user used the `parse_printf_format' function. This has changed.
Now a call to any of the `printf' functions will call this
function when this format specifier appears in the format string.
The return value is `0' on success, and `-1' on failure (which
occurs if SPEC is out of range).
You can redefine the standard output conversions, but this is
probably not a good idea because of the potential for confusion.
Library routines written by other people could break if you do
this.

File: libc.info, Node: Conversion Specifier Options, Next: Defining the Output Handler, Prev: Registering New Conversions, Up: Customizing Printf
12.13.2 Conversion Specifier Options
------------------------------------
If you define a meaning for `%A', what if the template contains `%+23A'
or `%-#A'? To implement a sensible meaning for these, the handler when
called needs to be able to get the options specified in the template.
Both the HANDLER-FUNCTION and ARGINFO-FUNCTION accept an argument
that points to a `struct printf_info', which contains information about
the options appearing in an instance of the conversion specifier. This
data type is declared in the header file `printf.h'.
-- Type: struct printf_info
This structure is used to pass information about the options
appearing in an instance of a conversion specifier in a `printf'
template string to the handler and arginfo functions for that
specifier. It contains the following members:
`int prec'
This is the precision specified. The value is `-1' if no
precision was specified. If the precision was given as `*',
the `printf_info' structure passed to the handler function
contains the actual value retrieved from the argument list.
But the structure passed to the arginfo function contains a
value of `INT_MIN', since the actual value is not known.
`int width'
This is the minimum field width specified. The value is `0'
if no width was specified. If the field width was given as
`*', the `printf_info' structure passed to the handler
function contains the actual value retrieved from the
argument list. But the structure passed to the arginfo
function contains a value of `INT_MIN', since the actual
value is not known.
`wchar_t spec'
This is the conversion specifier character specified. It's
stored in the structure so that you can register the same
handler function for multiple characters, but still have a
way to tell them apart when the handler function is called.
`unsigned int is_long_double'
This is a boolean that is true if the `L', `ll', or `q' type
modifier was specified. For integer conversions, this
indicates `long long int', as opposed to `long double' for
floating point conversions.
`unsigned int is_char'
This is a boolean that is true if the `hh' type modifier was
specified.
`unsigned int is_short'
This is a boolean that is true if the `h' type modifier was
specified.
`unsigned int is_long'
This is a boolean that is true if the `l' type modifier was
specified.
`unsigned int alt'
This is a boolean that is true if the `#' flag was specified.
`unsigned int space'
This is a boolean that is true if the ` ' flag was specified.
`unsigned int left'
This is a boolean that is true if the `-' flag was specified.
`unsigned int showsign'
This is a boolean that is true if the `+' flag was specified.
`unsigned int group'
This is a boolean that is true if the `'' flag was specified.
`unsigned int extra'
This flag has a special meaning depending on the context. It
could be used freely by the user-defined handlers but when
called from the `printf' function this variable always
contains the value `0'.
`unsigned int wide'
This flag is set if the stream is wide oriented.
`wchar_t pad'
This is the character to use for padding the output to the
minimum field width. The value is `'0'' if the `0' flag was
specified, and `' '' otherwise.

File: libc.info, Node: Defining the Output Handler, Next: Printf Extension Example, Prev: Conversion Specifier Options, Up: Customizing Printf
12.13.3 Defining the Output Handler
-----------------------------------
Now let's look at how to define the handler and arginfo functions which
are passed as arguments to `register_printf_function'.
*Compatibility Note:* The interface changed in the GNU C Library
version 2.0. Previously the third argument was of type `va_list *'.
You should define your handler functions with a prototype like:
int FUNCTION (FILE *stream, const struct printf_info *info,
const void *const *args)
The STREAM argument passed to the handler function is the stream to
which it should write output.
The INFO argument is a pointer to a structure that contains
information about the various options that were included with the
conversion in the template string. You should not modify this structure
inside your handler function. *Note Conversion Specifier Options::, for
a description of this data structure.
The ARGS is a vector of pointers to the arguments data. The number
of arguments was determined by calling the argument information
function provided by the user.
Your handler function should return a value just like `printf' does:
it should return the number of characters it has written, or a negative
value to indicate an error.
-- Data Type: printf_function
This is the data type that a handler function should have.
If you are going to use `parse_printf_format' in your application,
you must also define a function to pass as the ARGINFO-FUNCTION
argument for each new conversion you install with
`register_printf_function'.
You have to define these functions with a prototype like:
int FUNCTION (const struct printf_info *info,
size_t n, int *argtypes)
The return value from the function should be the number of arguments
the conversion expects. The function should also fill in no more than
N elements of the ARGTYPES array with information about the types of
each of these arguments. This information is encoded using the various
`PA_' macros. (You will notice that this is the same calling
convention `parse_printf_format' itself uses.)
-- Data Type: printf_arginfo_function
This type is used to describe functions that return information
about the number and type of arguments used by a conversion
specifier.