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<pre>
<span class="headline">FGETS(3P)                 POSIX Programmer's Manual                FGETS(3P)</span>
</pre>
<h2><a id="PROLOG" href="fgets.3p.html#PROLOG"></a>PROLOG  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="fgets.3p.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  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.
</pre>
<h2><a id="NAME" href="fgets.3p.html#NAME"></a>NAME  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="fgets.3p.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       fgets — get a string from a stream
</pre>
<h2><a id="SYNOPSIS" href="fgets.3p.html#SYNOPSIS"></a>SYNOPSIS  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="fgets.3p.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       #include &lt;stdio.h&gt;

       char *fgets(char *restrict <i>s</i>, int <i>n</i>, FILE *restrict <i>stream</i>);
</pre>
<h2><a id="DESCRIPTION" href="fgets.3p.html#DESCRIPTION"></a>DESCRIPTION  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="fgets.3p.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       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. This volume of
       POSIX.1‐2008 defers to the ISO C standard.

       The <i>fgets</i>() function shall read bytes from <i>stream</i> into the array
       pointed to by <i>s</i>, until <i>n</i>−1 bytes are read, or a &lt;newline&gt; is read and
       transferred to <i>s</i>, or an end-of-file condition is encountered. The
       string is then terminated with a null byte.

       The <i>fgets</i>() function may mark the last data access timestamp of the
       file associated with <i>stream</i> for update. The last data access
       timestamp shall be marked for update by the first successful
       execution of <i>fgetc</i>(), <i>fgets</i>(), <i>fread</i>(), <i>fscanf</i>(), <i>getc</i>(), <i>getchar</i>(),
       <i>getdelim</i>(), <i>getline</i>(), <i>gets</i>(), or <i>scanf</i>() using <i>stream</i> that returns
       data not supplied by a prior call to <i>ungetc</i>().
</pre>
<h2><a id="RETURN_VALUE" href="fgets.3p.html#RETURN_VALUE"></a>RETURN VALUE  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="fgets.3p.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       Upon successful completion, <i>fgets</i>() shall return <i>s</i>.  If the stream is
       at end-of-file, the end-of-file indicator for the stream shall be set
       and <i>fgets</i>() shall return a null pointer.  If a read error occurs, the
       error indicator for the stream shall be set, <i>fgets</i>() shall return a
       null pointer, and shall set <i><a href="errno.3.html">errno</a></i> to indicate the error.
</pre>
<h2><a id="ERRORS" href="fgets.3p.html#ERRORS"></a>ERRORS  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="fgets.3p.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       Refer to <a href="fgetc.3p.html">fgetc(3p)</a>.

       <i>The following sections are informative.</i>
</pre>
<h2><a id="EXAMPLES" href="fgets.3p.html#EXAMPLES"></a>EXAMPLES  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="fgets.3p.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
   <b>Reading Input</b>
       The following example uses <i>fgets</i>() to read lines of input. It assumes
       that the file it is reading is a text file and that lines in this
       text file are no longer than 16384 (or {LINE_MAX} if it is less than
       16384 on the implementation where it is running) bytes long. (Note
       that the standard utilities have no line length limit if
       <i>sysconf</i>(_SC_LINE_MAX) returns −1 without setting <i><a href="errno.3.html">errno</a></i>.  This example
       assumes that <i>sysconf</i>(_SC_LINE_MAX) will not fail.)

           <b>#include &lt;limits.h&gt;</b>
           <b>#include &lt;stdio.h&gt;</b>
           <b>#include &lt;unistd.h&gt;</b>
           <b>#define MYLIMIT 16384</b>

           char *line;
           int line_max;
           if (LINE_MAX &gt;= MYLIMIT) {
               // Use maximum line size of MYLIMIT. If LINE_MAX is
               // bigger than our limit, sysconf() can't report a
               // smaller limit.
               line_max = MYLIMIT;
           } else {
               long limit = sysconf(_SC_LINE_MAX);
               line_max = (limit &lt; 0 || limit &gt; MYLIMIT) ? MYLIMIT : (int)limit;
           }

           // line_max + 1 leaves room for the null byte added by fgets().
           line = malloc(line_max + 1);
           if (line == NULL) {
               // out of space
               ...
               return error;
           }

           while (fgets(line, line_max + 1, fp) != NULL) {
               // Verify that a full line has been read ...
               // If not, report an error or prepare to treat the
               // next time through the loop as a read of a
               // continuation of the current line.
               ...
               // Process line ...
               ...
           }
           free(line);
           ...
</pre>
<h2><a id="APPLICATION_USAGE" href="fgets.3p.html#APPLICATION_USAGE"></a>APPLICATION USAGE  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="fgets.3p.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       None.
</pre>
<h2><a id="RATIONALE" href="fgets.3p.html#RATIONALE"></a>RATIONALE  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="fgets.3p.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       None.
</pre>
<h2><a id="FUTURE_DIRECTIONS" href="fgets.3p.html#FUTURE_DIRECTIONS"></a>FUTURE DIRECTIONS  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="fgets.3p.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       None.
</pre>
<h2><a id="SEE_ALSO" href="fgets.3p.html#SEE_ALSO"></a>SEE ALSO  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="fgets.3p.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       <i>Section 2.5</i>, <i>Standard I/O Streams</i>, <a href="fgetc.3p.html">fgetc(3p)</a>, <a href="fopen.3p.html">fopen(3p)</a>, <a href="fread.3p.html">fread(3p)</a>,
       <a href="fscanf.3p.html">fscanf(3p)</a>, <a href="getc.3p.html">getc(3p)</a>, <a href="getchar.3p.html">getchar(3p)</a>, <a href="getdelim.3p.html">getdelim(3p)</a>, <a href="gets.3p.html">gets(3p)</a>, <a href="ungetc.3p.html">ungetc(3p)</a>

       The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <a href="../man0/stdio.h.0p.html">stdio.h(0p)</a>
</pre>
<h2><a id="COPYRIGHT" href="fgets.3p.html#COPYRIGHT"></a>COPYRIGHT  &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; <a href="fgets.3p.html#top_of_page"><span class="top-link">top</span></a></h2><pre>
       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
       from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information
       Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open
       Group Base Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the
       Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open
       Group.  (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1
       applied.) 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 <a href="http://www.unix.org/online.html">http://www.unix.org/online.html</a> .

       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
       <a href="https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html">https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html</a> .

<span class="footline">IEEE/The Open Group                 2013                           FGETS(3P)</span>
</pre>

<hr class="end-man-text" />
<p>Pages that refer to this page: 
    <a href="../man0/stdio.h.0p.html">stdio.h(0p)</a>,&nbsp; 
    <a href="fgetc.3p.html">fgetc(3p)</a>,&nbsp; 
    <a href="getdelim.3p.html">getdelim(3p)</a>,&nbsp; 
    <a href="gets.3p.html">gets(3p)</a>
</p>
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