NAME

       open_memstream, open_wmemstream -  open a dynamic memory buffer stream

SYNOPSIS

       #include <stdio.h>

       FILE *open_memstream(char **ptr, size_t *sizeloc);

       #include <wchar.h>

       FILE *open_wmemstream(wchar_t **ptr, size_t *sizeloc);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       open_memstream(), open_wmemstream():
           Since glibc 2.10:
               _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200809L
           Before glibc 2.10:
               _GNU_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

       The open_memstream() function opens a stream for writing to a memory buffer.  The function
       dynamically  allocates  the  buffer,  and  the  buffer  automatically  grows  as   needed.
       Initially,  the  buffer  has  a size of zero.  After closing the stream, the caller should
       free(3) this buffer.

       The locations pointed to by ptr and sizeloc are used to report, respectively, the  current
       location  and  the  size  of  the buffer.  The locations referred to by these pointers are
       updated each time the stream  is  flushed  (fflush(3))  and  when  the  stream  is  closed
       (fclose(3)).   These  values  remain  valid only as long as the caller performs no further
       output on the stream.  If further output is performed,  then  the  stream  must  again  be
       flushed before trying to access these values.

       A null byte is maintained at the end of the buffer.  This byte is not included in the size
       value stored at sizeloc.

       The stream maintains the notion of a current position, which is initially zero (the  start
       of  the  buffer).   Each  write  operation  implicitly  adjusts  the buffer position.  The
       stream's buffer position can be explicitly changed with fseek(3) or fseeko(3).  Moving the
       buffer  position past the end of the data already written fills the intervening space with
       null characters.

       The open_wmemstream() is similar to open_memstream(),  but  operates  on  wide  characters
       instead of bytes.

RETURN VALUE

       Upon  successful completion, open_memstream() and open_wmemstream() return a FILE pointer.
       Otherwise, NULL is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

VERSIONS

       open_memstream() was already available in glibc  1.0.x.   open_wmemstream()  is  available
       since glibc 2.4.

ATTRIBUTES

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

       ┌──────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │Interface         │ Attribute     │ Value   │
       ├──────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │open_memstream(), │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       │open_wmemstream   │               │         │
       └──────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

CONFORMING TO

       POSIX.1-2008.   These  functions  are  not  specified  in POSIX.1-2001, and are not widely
       available on other systems.

NOTES

       There is no file descriptor associated with the file stream returned  by  these  functions
       (i.e., fileno(3) will return an error if called on the returned stream).

BUGS

       In  glibc before version 2.7, seeking past the end of a stream created by open_memstream()
       does not enlarge the buffer; instead the fseek(3) call fails, returning -1.

EXAMPLE

       See fmemopen(3).

SEE ALSO

       fmemopen(3), fopen(3), setbuf(3)

COLOPHON

       This page is part of release 4.15 of the Linux man-pages project.  A  description  of  the
       project,  information  about  reporting  bugs, and the latest version of this page, can be
       found at https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.