fmin(3)

💖 fmin(3) — the girlies of libm 💖

okay so bestie, welcome to the fmin(3) page 💅 this is a manual page from the Library Functions Manual, and honestly? it's giving "tiny but mighty." no cap.

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🎀 NAME 🎀

fmin, fminf, fminl — determine minimum of two floating-point numbers

like, it picks the smaller one. that's the whole job. and it does it flawlessly. periodt. ✨

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📚 LIBRARY 📚

Math library (libm, -lm)

bestie you HAVE to link -lm or she simply will not show up. that's the vibe check. 🔥

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <math.h>

double fmin(double x, double y);
float fminf(float x, float y);
long double fminl(long double x, long double y);

✨ Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)): ✨

fmin(), fminf(), fminl():

_ISOC99_SOURCE || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L

no iykyk moment needed, just define one of these if you're on old glibc energy 🫶

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

These functions return the lesser value of x and y.

that's it. that's the function. she looks at two numbers, she picks the smaller one, she moves on with her day. main character energy, minimal drama, obsessed. 💖

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🌈 RETURN VALUE 🌈

These functions return the minimum of x and y.

and here's the part that's actually kind of iconic:

• If one argument is a NaN, the other argument is returned.

yes bestie, she's polite. one friend is having a meltdown (NaN) and she just... hands you the other one. no crash, no nonsense. 🧚

• If both arguments are NaN, a NaN is returned.

okay if BOTH of them are in their flop era then it's a NaN and that's just what it is 😭

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👑 ERRORS 👑

No errors occur.

literally nothing. zero. she does not fail. she does not complain. she simply is. 💅

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⭐ ATTRIBUTES ⭐

For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

• Interface: fmin(), fminf(), fminl()
• Attribute: Thread safety
• Value: MT-Safe

so like, throw her in every thread you want, she's MT-Safe, she's not gonna cause chaos, she's a good influence 🎀🔥

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🦋 STANDARDS 🦋

C11, POSIX.1-2008.

standardized. official. certified queen behavior. 👑

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🍓 HISTORY 🍓

glibc 2.1. C99, POSIX.1-2001.

she's been around since glibc 2.1 and honestly she's aged like fine wine ✨

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🌸 SEE ALSO 🌸

• fdim(3)
• fmax(3)

(fmax is her sister. same energy, opposite direction. go say hi 💖)

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no bugs notes here bestie, that section doesn't exist on this page, so don't go looking for tea that isn't there 🙈

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that's the whole page, mwah 💋 — with love from Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2026-02-08, and obvi titled fmin(3). go forth and take the minimum of things, bestie 🫶✨