setvbuf

Changes the buffering mode of the given file stream stream as indicated by the argument mode . In addition,

• If buffer is a null pointer, resizes the internal buffer to size .
• If buffer is not a null pointer, instructs the stream to use the user-provided buffer of size size beginning at buffer . The stream must be closed (with fclose ) before the lifetime of the array pointed to by buffer ends. The contents of the array after a successful call to setvbuf are indeterminate and any attempt to use it is undefined behavior.

Parameters

Return value

​ 0 ​ on success or nonzero on failure.

Notes

This function may only be used after stream has been associated with an open file, but before any other operation (other than a failed call to setbuf / setvbuf ).

Not all size bytes will necessarily be used for buffering: the actual buffer size is usually rounded down to a multiple of 2, a multiple of page size, etc.

On many implementations, line buffering is only available for terminal input streams.

A common error is setting the buffer of stdin or stdout to an array whose lifetime ends before the program terminates:

int main(void) {
    char buf[BUFSIZ];
    setbuf(stdin, buf);
} // lifetime of buf ends, undefined behavior

The default buffer size BUFSIZ is expected to be the most efficient buffer size for file I/O on the implementation, but POSIX fstat often provides a better estimate.

Example

// Make some POSIX functions, such as `int fileno(FILE*)`, visible:
#define _POSIX_SOURCE
 
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
 
int main(void)
{
    FILE* fp = fopen("/tmp/test.txt", "w+");
    if (fp == NULL)
    {
        perror("fopen");
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }
 
    struct stat stats;
    if (fstat(fileno(fp), &stats) == -1) // POSIX only
    {
        perror("fstat");
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }
 
    printf("BUFSIZ is %d, but optimal block size is %ld\n", BUFSIZ, stats.st_blksize);
    if (setvbuf(fp, NULL, _IOFBF, stats.st_blksize) != 0)
    {
        perror("setvbuf failed"); // POSIX version sets errno
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }
 
    int ch;
    while((ch=fgetc(fp)) != EOF); // read entire file: use truss/strace to
                                  // observe the read(2) syscalls used
 
    fclose(fp);
    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

BUFSIZ is 8192, but optimal block size is 65536

References

See also