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PROLOG
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.
NAME
creat — create a new file or rewrite an existing one
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
int creat(const char *path, mode_t mode);
DESCRIPTION
The creat() function shall behave as if it is implemented as follows:
int creat(const char *path, mode_t mode)
{
return open(path, O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, mode);
}
RETURN VALUE
Refer to open().
ERRORS
Refer to open().
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
Creating a File
The following example creates the file /tmp/file with read and write permissions for the file owner and
read permission for group and others. The resulting file descriptor is assigned to the fd variable.
#include <fcntl.h>
...
int fd;
mode_t mode = S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH;
char *pathname = "/tmp/file";
...
fd = creat(pathname, mode);
...
APPLICATION USAGE
None.
RATIONALE
The creat() function is redundant. Its services are also provided by the open() function. It has been
included primarily for historical purposes since many existing applications depend on it. It is best
considered a part of the C binding rather than a function that should be provided in other languages.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
mknod(), open()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2017, <fcntl.h>, <sys_stat.h>, <sys_types.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1-2017, Standard
for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, 2018 Edition, Copyright (C) 2018 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. 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 http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .
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
https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .