VistaIOOpenFile(3)

💖 VistaIOOpenFile — the file-opening glow-up ✨

okay bestie, so this is the manual page for VistaIOOpenFile(3) from the Library Functions Manual — aka the "please open this file for me and also don't let me crash silently" duo. two functions, one very specific job, and honestly? they ate. 💅

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

VistaIOOpenInputFile, VistaIOOpenOutputFile — open a file, but with error checking, because we are not raw-dogging fopen() in this house 🫶

---

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <vistaio.h>

FILE *VistaIOOpenInputFile (VistaIOStringConst filename, VistaIOBoolean nofail);

FILE *VistaIOOpenOutputFile (VistaIOStringConst filename, VistaIOBoolean nofail);

---

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• filename — the name of the file you wanna open. that's it, that's the whole vibe.
• nofail — tells the routine whether it should exit the whole program if the file can't be opened. yes, it really does go that hard 😭

---

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so these routines open a file while checking for failure, and they also recognize the special filename "-" as meaning standard input or standard output. iconic behaviour, no cap.

if filename is NULL, or if it's the string "-", you just get stdin or stdout handed back to you. otherwise, it goes and tries to actually open the named file for reading or writing, whichever is appropriate. and if that attempt works out? you get the resulting file pointer back. slay.

now the nofail argument is the one deciding the whole plot of what happens when a file can't be opened:

• if nofail is FALSE → a warning message gets issued, and NULL is returned. gentle. respectful. we move on. 🌸
• if nofail is TRUE → a fatal error message gets issued and the program is terminated. it's giving main character energy and zero chill 💀

---

🦋 RETURN VALUES 🦋

either routine returns a pointer to the opened FILE if it worked. otherwise it returns NULL, or it just... doesn't return at all — that depends entirely on nofail. yeah. sometimes the function just leaves. periodt.

---

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

VistaIOIdentifyFiles(3), VistaIOReadObjects(3), VistaIOWriteObjects(3),

---

🌈 DIAGNOSTICS 🌈

Unable to open input/output file filename.

that's the message. it shows up when things go sideways. you will know it when you see it 🙈

---

👑 AUTHOR 👑

Art Pope <pope@cs.ubc.ca>

Adaption to vistaio: Gert Wollny <gw.fossdev@gmail.com>

---

and that's the whole page, bestie 💜 this was VistaIO Version 1.2.14, dated 6 June 1994 — yes, 1994, a vintage icon fr fr ✨ thanks for reading, mwah 🎀