NAME

fileno - map a stream pointer to a file descriptor

SYNOPSIS

[CX] #include <stdio.h>

int fileno(FILE *stream);

DESCRIPTION

The fileno() function shall return the integer file descriptor associated with the stream pointed to by stream.

RETURN VALUE

Upon successful completion, fileno() shall return the integer value of the file descriptor associated with stream. Otherwise, the value -1 shall be returned and errno set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

The fileno() function may fail if:

[EBADF]

The stream argument is not a valid stream.

EXAMPLES

None.

APPLICATION USAGE

None.

RATIONALE

Without some specification of which file descriptors are associated with these streams, it is impossible for an application to set up the streams for another application it starts with fork() and exec. In particular, it would not be possible to write a portable version of the sh command interpreter (although there may be other constraints that would prevent that portability).

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

None.

SEE ALSO

Interaction of File Descriptors and Standard I/O Streams, fdopen(), fopen(), stdin(), the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <stdio.h>

CHANGE HISTORY

First released in Issue 1. Derived from Issue 1 of the SVID.

Issue 6

The following new requirements on POSIX implementations derive from alignment with the Single UNIX Specification:

• The [EBADF] optional error condition is added.