FGETC(3P)

🌸 FGETC(3P) — the POSIX girlies' guide to snatching one (1) byte 💅

okay bestie, so this page lives in the POSIX Programmer's Manual — like, that's its whole home base. ✨

Heads up, queen: the Linux implementation of this interface may be different from what's written here (so go check the matching Linux manual page for the deets on Linux behavior), or honestly? The interface might not even be implemented on Linux at all. 🙈

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✨ PROLOG ✨

This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual, no cap.

• The Linux implementation of this interface may differ — consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior.
• Or the interface may not be implemented on Linux. 💀

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🎀 NAME 🎀

fgetc — get a byte from a stream. that's it, that's the whole job. iconic behavior honestly.

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🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

#include <stdio.h>

int fgetc(FILE *stream);

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💖 DESCRIPTION 💖

So the functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the ISO C standard, periodt. If there's any conflict between the requirements described here and the ISO C standard, that conflict is unintentional — not on purpose, okay? This volume of POSIX.1‐2017 defers to the ISO C standard. 👑

Now the actual tea: if the end-of-file indicator for the input stream pointed to by stream is not set, and a next byte is present, then fgetc() shall obtain the next byte as an unsigned char converted to an int, from the input stream pointed to by stream, and advance the associated file position indicator for the stream (if defined).

The way that fgetc() operates on bytes... reading a character consisting of multiple bytes (or ``a multi-byte character'') may require multiple calls to fgetc(). fr fr, one byte at a time, that's the vibe. 🐛

Also, fgetc() may mark the last data access timestamp of the file associated with stream for update. And that timestamp shall be marked for update by the first successful execution of fgetc(), fgets(), fread(), fscanf(), getc(), getchar(), getdelim(), getline(), gets(), or scanf() using stream that returns data not supplied by a prior call to ungetc(). iykyk. ⏰

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🌈 RETURN VALUE 🌈

Upon successful completion, fgetc() shall return the next byte from the input stream pointed to by stream. slay. ✨

If the end-of-file indicator for the stream is set, or if the stream is at end-of-file, the end-of-file indicator for the stream shall be set and fgetc() shall return EOF.

If a read error occurs, the error indicator for the stream shall be set, fgetc() shall return EOF, and shall set errno to indicate the error. 😭

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💅 ERRORS 💅

The fgetc() function shall fail if data needs to be read and:

• EAGAIN — The O_NONBLOCK flag is set for the file descriptor underlying stream and the thread would be delayed in the fgetc() operation. not the vibe, we're waiting 😤
• EBADF — The file descriptor underlying stream is not a valid file descriptor open for reading.
• EINTR — The read operation was terminated due to the receipt of a signal, and no data was transferred.
• EIO — A physical I/O error has occurred, or the process is in a background process group attempting to read from its controlling terminal, and either the calling thread is blocking SIGTTIN or the process is ignoring SIGTTIN or the process group of the process is orphaned. This error may also be generated for implementation-defined reasons. spooky 🫣
• EOVERFLOW — The file is a regular file and an attempt was made to read at or beyond the offset maximum associated with the corresponding stream.

The fgetc() function may fail if:

• ENOMEM — Insufficient storage space is available.
• ENXIO — A request was made of a nonexistent device, or the request was outside the capabilities of the device.

The following sections are informative. (aka: cute, but not binding 💖)

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⭐ EXAMPLES ⭐

None. bestie there is literally nothing here. moving on 🙈

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🍓 APPLICATION USAGE 🍓

Okay this one actually matters, listen up:

If the integer value returned by fgetc() is stored into a variable of type char and then compared against the integer constant EOF, the comparison may never succeed, because sign-extension of a variable of type char on widening to integer is implementation-defined. so don't do that, please, for me 🥺

You must use the ferror() or feof() functions to distinguish between an error condition and an end-of-file condition. no guessing allowed, use the actual functions. 🔥

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💜 RATIONALE 💜

None. she said no thoughts, head empty 🧚

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🌸 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 🌸

None. the future is bright and unchanging ✨

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🫶 SEE ALSO 🫶

• Section 2.5, Standard I/O Streams
• feof()
• ferror()
• fgets()
• fread()
• fscanf()
• getchar()
• getc()
• gets()
• ungetc()

And from the Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017: <stdio.h> 👑

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👑 COPYRIGHT 👑

Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.

In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. (the originals are the main characters, we're just the group chat 🌈)

The original Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .

Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .

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and that's the whole page, bestie — brought to you by IEEE/The Open Group, 2017, aka FGETC(3P), the byte-snatching baddie herself. mwah 💋💖✨