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FOPENCOOKIE(3)                Linux Programmer's Manual                FOPENCOOKIE(3)

NAME         top

       fopencookie - opening a custom stream

SYNOPSIS         top

       #define _GNU_SOURCE         /* See feature_test_macros(7) */
       #include <stdio.h>

       FILE *fopencookie(void *cookie, const char *mode,
                         cookie_io_functions_t io_funcs);

DESCRIPTION         top

       The fopencookie() function allows the programmer to create a custom
       implementation for a standard I/O stream.  This implementation can store the
       stream's data at a location of its own choosing; for example, fopencookie() is
       used to implement fmemopen(3), which provides a stream interface to data that
       is stored in a buffer in memory.

       In order to create a custom stream the programmer must:

       *  Implement four "hook" functions that are used internally by the standard
          I/O library when performing I/O on the stream.

       *  Define a "cookie" data type, a structure that provides bookkeeping
          information (e.g., where to store data) used by the aforementioned hook
          functions.  The standard I/O package knows nothing about the contents of
          this cookie (thus it is typed as void * when passed to fopencookie()), but
          automatically supplies the cookie as the first argument when calling the
          hook functions.

       *  Call fopencookie() to open a new stream and associate the cookie and hook
          functions with that stream.

       The fopencookie() function serves a purpose similar to fopen(3): it opens a
       new stream and returns a pointer to a FILE object that is used to operate on
       that stream.

       The cookie argument is a pointer to the caller's cookie structure that is to
       be associated with the new stream.  This pointer is supplied as the first
       argument when the standard I/O library invokes any of the hook functions
       described below.

       The mode argument serves the same purpose as for fopen(3).  The following
       modes are supported: r, w, a, r+, w+, and a+.  See fopen(3) for details.

       The io_funcs argument is a structure that contains four fields pointing to the
       programmer-defined hook functions that are used to implement this stream.  The
       structure is defined as follows

           struct cookie_io_functions_t {
               cookie_read_function_t  *read;
               cookie_write_function_t *write;
               cookie_seek_function_t  *seek;
               cookie_close_function_t *close;
           };

       The four fields are as follows:

       cookie_read_function_t *read
              This function implements read operations for the stream.  When called,
              it receives three arguments:

                  ssize_t read(void *cookie, char *buf, size_t size);

              The buf and size arguments are, respectively, a buffer into which input
              data can be placed and the size of that buffer.  As its function
              result, the read function should return the number of bytes copied into
              buf, 0 on end of file, or -1 on error.  The read function should update
              the stream offset appropriately.

              If *read is a NULL pointer, then reads from the custom stream always
              return end of file.

       cookie_write_function_t *write
              This function implements write operations for the stream.  When called,
              it receives three arguments:

                  ssize_t write(void *cookie, const char *buf, size_t size);

              The buf and size arguments are, respectively, a buffer of data to be
              output to the stream and the size of that buffer.  As its function
              result, the write function should return the number of bytes copied
              from buf, or -1 on error.  The write function should update the stream
              offset appropriately.

              If *write is a NULL pointer, then output to the stream is discarded.

       cookie_seek_function_t *seek
              This function implements seek operations on the stream.  When called,
              it receives three arguments:

                  int seek(void *cookie, off64_t *offset, int whence);

              The *offset argument specifies the new file offset depending on which
              of the following three values is supplied in whence:

              SEEK_SET  The stream offset should be set *offset bytes from the start
                        of the stream.

              SEEK_CUR  *offset should be added to the current stream offset.

              SEEK_END  The stream offset should be set to the size of the stream
                        plus *offset.

              Before returning, the seek function should update *offset to indicate
              the new stream offset.

              As its function result, the seek function should return 0 on success,
              and -1 on error.

              If *seek is a NULL pointer, then it is not possible to perform seek
              operations on the stream.

       cookie_close_function_t *close
              This function closes the stream.  The hook function can do things such
              as freeing buffers allocated for the stream.  When called, it receives
              one argument:

                  int close(void *cookie);

              The cookie argument is the cookie that the programmer supplied when
              calling fopencookie().

              As its function result, the close function should return 0 on success,
              and EOF on error.

              If *close is NULL, then no special action is performed when the stream
              is closed.

RETURN VALUE         top

       On success fopencookie() returns a pointer to the new stream.  On error, NULL
       is returned.

CONFORMING TO         top

       This function is a nonstandard GNU extension.

EXAMPLE         top

       The program below implements a custom stream whose functionality is similar
       (but not identical) to that available via fmemopen(3).  It implements a stream
       whose data is stored in a memory buffer.  The program writes its command-line
       arguments to the stream, and then seeks through the stream reading two out of
       every five characters and writing them to standard output.  The following
       shell session demonstrates the use of the program:

           $ ./a.out 'hello world'
           /he/
           / w/
           /d/
           Reached end of file

       Note that a more general version of the program below could be improved to
       more robustly handle various error situations (e.g., opening a stream with a
       cookie that already has an open stream; closing a stream that has already been
       closed).

Program source


       #define _GNU_SOURCE
       #include <sys/types.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <unistd.h>
       #include <string.h>

       #define INIT_BUF_SIZE 4

       struct memfile_cookie {
           char   *buf;        /* Dynamically sized buffer for data */
           size_t  allocated;  /* Size of buf */
           size_t  endpos;     /* Number of characters in buf */
           off_t   offset;     /* Current file offset in buf */
       };

       ssize_t
       memfile_write(void *c, const char *buf, size_t size)
       {
           char *new_buff;
           struct memfile_cookie *cookie = c;

           /* Buffer too small? Keep doubling size until big enough */

           while (size + cookie->offset > cookie->allocated) {
               new_buff = realloc(cookie->buf, cookie->allocated * 2);
               if (new_buff == NULL) {
                   return -1;
               } else {
                   cookie->allocated *= 2;
                   cookie->buf = new_buff;
               }
           }

           memcpy(cookie->buf + cookie->offset, buf, size);

           cookie->offset += size;
           if (cookie->offset > cookie->endpos)
               cookie->endpos = cookie->offset;

           return size;
       }

       ssize_t
       memfile_read(void *c, char *buf, size_t size)
       {
           ssize_t xbytes;
           struct memfile_cookie *cookie = c;

           /* Fetch minimum of bytes requested and bytes available */

           xbytes = size;
           if (cookie->offset + size > cookie->endpos)
               xbytes = cookie->endpos - cookie->offset;
           if (xbytes < 0)     /* offset may be past endpos */
              xbytes = 0;

           memcpy(buf, cookie->buf + cookie->offset, xbytes);

           cookie->offset += xbytes;
           return xbytes;
       }

       int
       memfile_seek(void *c, off64_t *offset, int whence)
       {
           off64_t new_offset;
           struct memfile_cookie *cookie = c;

           if (whence == SEEK_SET)
               new_offset = *offset;
           else if (whence == SEEK_END)
               new_offset = cookie->endpos + *offset;
           else if (whence == SEEK_CUR)
               new_offset = cookie->offset + *offset;
           else
               return -1;

           if (new_offset < 0)
               return -1;

           cookie->offset = new_offset;
           *offset = new_offset;
           return 0;
       }

       int
       memfile_close(void *c)
       {
           struct memfile_cookie *cookie = c;

           free(cookie->buf);
           cookie->allocated = 0;
           cookie->buf = NULL;

           return 0;
       }

       int
       main(int argc, char *argv[])
       {
           cookie_io_functions_t  memfile_func = {
               .read  = memfile_read,
               .write = memfile_write,
               .seek  = memfile_seek,
               .close = memfile_close
           };
           FILE *fp;
           struct memfile_cookie mycookie;
           ssize_t nread;
           long p;
           int j;
           char buf[1000];

           /* Set up the cookie before calling fopencookie() */

           mycookie.buf = malloc(INIT_BUF_SIZE);
           if (mycookie.buf == NULL) {
               perror("malloc");
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           mycookie.allocated = INIT_BUF_SIZE;
           mycookie.offset = 0;
           mycookie.endpos = 0;

           fp = fopencookie(&mycookie,"w+", memfile_func);
           if (fp == NULL) {
               perror("fopencookie");
               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           /* Write command-line arguments to our file */

           for (j = 1; j < argc; j++)
               if (fputs(argv[j], fp) == EOF) {
                   perror("fputs");
                   exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
               }

           /* Read two bytes out of every five, until EOF */

           for (p = 0; ; p += 5) {
               if (fseek(fp, p, SEEK_SET) == -1) {
                   perror("fseek");
                   exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
               }
               nread = fread(buf, 1, 2, fp);
               if (nread == -1) {
                   perror("fread");
                   exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
               }
               if (nread == 0) {
                   printf("Reached end of file\n");
                   break;
               }

               printf("/%.*s/\n", nread, buf);
           }

           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO         top

       fclose(3), fmemopen(3), fopen(3), fseek(3)

COLOPHON         top

       This page is part of release 3.32 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
       description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found
       at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux                                 2008-12-05                       FOPENCOOKIE(3)

HTML rendering created 2010-12-03 by Michael Kerrisk, author of The Linux Programming Interface

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