getdelim

GETLINE(3)		  Linux Programmer’s Manual		   GETLINE(3)



NAME
       getline, getdelim - delimited string input

SYNOPSIS
       #define _GNU_SOURCE
       #include <stdio.h>

       ssize_t getline(char **lineptr, size_t *n, FILE *stream);
       ssize_t getdelim(char **lineptr, size_t *n, int delim, FILE *stream);

DESCRIPTION
       getline() reads an entire line, storing the address of the buffer con-
       taining the text into *lineptr.	The  buffer  is	 null-terminated  and
       includes the newline character, if a newline delimiter was found.

       If  *lineptr is NULL, the getline() routine will allocate a buffer for
       containing the line, which must be freed by the user program.   Alter-
       natively,  before calling getline(), *lineptr can contain a pointer to
       a malloc()-allocated buffer *n bytes in size. If	 the  buffer  is  not
       large enough to hold the line read in, getline() resizes the buffer to
       fit with realloc(), updating *lineptr and *n as necessary.  In  either
       case, on a successful call, *lineptr and *n will be updated to reflect
       the buffer address and size respectively.

       getdelim() works like getline(), except a line  delimiter  other	 than
       newline can be specified as the delimiter argument. As with getline(),
       a delimiter character is not added if one was not present in the input
       before end of file was reached.


RETURN VALUE
       On  success,  getline() and getdelim() return the number of characters
       read, including the delimiter character, but not including the  termi-
       nating  null character. This value can be used to handle embedded null
       characters in the line read.

       Both functions return -1	 on failure to read a line (including end  of
       file condition).


ERRORS
       EINVAL Bad  parameters (n or lineptr is NULL, or stream is not valid).


EXAMPLE
       #define _GNU_SOURCE
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>

       int main(void)
       {
	    FILE * fp;
	    char * line = NULL;
	    size_t len = 0;
	    ssize_t read;
	    fp = fopen("/etc/motd", "r");
	    if (fp == NULL)
		 exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	    while ((read = getline(&line, &len, fp)) != -1) {
		 printf("Retrieved line of length %zu :\n", read);
		 printf("%s", line);
	    }
	    if (line)
		 free(line);
	    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
       }

CONFORMING TO
       Both getline() and getdelim() are GNU extensions.  They are  available
       since libc 4.6.27.


SEE ALSO
       read(2), fopen(3), fread(3), gets(3), fgets(3), scanf(3)



GNU				  2001-10-07			   GETLINE(3)