PUTS(3POSIX)

💖 PUTS(3POSIX) 💖

okay bestie, welcome to the POSIX Programmer's Manual ✨ this is puts(3POSIX), the it-girl of string output, and we're gonna vibe through her whole reference page together. grab a boba, let's go 🧋

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🚨 PROLOG 🚨

This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. Here's the tea tho: the Linux implementation of this interface may differ (so like, consult the corresponding Linux manual page for the details, fr fr), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux at all 💀. iykyk.

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🌸 NAME 🌸

puts — put a string on standard output. that's it. that's the whole job. and she does it flawlessly 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

#include <stdio.h>

int puts(const char *s);

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the ISO C standard. Any conflict between the requirements described here and the ISO C standard is unintentional — no drama intended, we promise 🙈. This volume of POSIX.1‐2017 defers to the ISO C standard. periodt.

The puts() function shall write the string pointed to by s, followed by a <newline>, to the standard output stream stdout. The terminating null byte shall not be written. she adds the newline for you, because she's thoughtful like that 🎀

The last data modification and last file status change timestamps of the file shall be marked for update between the successful execution of puts() and the next successful completion of a call to fflush() or fclose() on the same stream, or a call to exit() or abort(). yes this is a whole timing situation, write it down 📝

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🔥 RETURN VALUE 🔥

Upon successful completion, puts() shall return a non-negative number. Otherwise, it shall return EOF, shall set an error indicator for the stream, and errno shall be set to indicate the error. so like, either she ate, or she's telling you exactly what went wrong 🫶

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💀 ERRORS 💀

Refer to fputc().

The following sections are informative. (translation: the juicy part is over, everything from here on is bonus content 🌈)

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🕐 EXAMPLES 🕐

Printing to Standard Output 👑

The following example gets the current time, converts it to a string using localtime() and asctime(), and prints it to standard output using puts(). It then prints the number of minutes to an event for which it is waiting. lowkey a whole timestamp-and-countdown moment, main character energy fr 🕰️

#include <time.h>
#include <stdio.h>
...
time_t now;
int minutes_to_event;
...
time(&now);
printf("The time is ");
puts(asctime(localtime(&now)));
printf("There are %d minutes to the event.\n",
    minutes_to_event);
...

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🎀 APPLICATION USAGE 🎀

The puts() function appends a <newline>, while fputs() does not. that's the whole difference, bestie — one gives you the line break, one makes you do it yourself 😭

This volume of POSIX.1‐2017 requires that successful completion simply return a non-negative integer. There are at least three known different implementation conventions for this requirement:

• Return a constant value.
• Return the last character written.
• Return the number of bytes written. Note that this implementation convention cannot be adhered to for strings longer than {INT_MAX} bytes as the value would not be representable in the return type of the function. For backwards compatibility, implementations can return the number of bytes for strings of up to {INT_MAX} bytes, and return {INT_MAX} for all longer strings.

so like, three different girls, three different ways of saying "yes bestie it worked" 💅 and you genuinely cannot tell which one you're talking to. iconic behavior honestly.

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🧚 RATIONALE 🧚

None.

(not a single note. she said no comment and meant it 💀)

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🌈 FUTURE DIRECTIONS 🌈

None.

(nothing planned. she's perfect as she is. leave her alone 🫶)

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👀 SEE ALSO 👀

Section 2.5, Standard I/O Streams, fopen(), fputs(), putc()

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 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!! 💖 this lil masterpiece came to you courtesy of IEEE/The Open Group, dated 2017, and it's filed under PUTS(3POSIX). she's been serving since 2017 and she's still slaying. go print some strings, you got this ✨🎀🦋