fwrite

- binary output

Synopsis

#include <stdio.h>

size_t fwrite(const void *ptr, size_t size, size_t nitems, FILE *stream);

Description

The fwrite() function writes, from the array pointed to by ptr, up to nitems elements whose size is specified by size, to the stream pointed to by stream. For each object, size calls are made to the fputc(3C) function, taking the values (in order) from an array of unsigned char exactly overlaying the object. The file-position indicator for the stream (if defined) is advanced by the number of bytes successfully written. If an error occurs, the resulting value of the file-position indicator for the stream is unspecified.

The st_ctime and st_mtime fields of the file will be marked for update between the successful execution of fwrite() and the next successful completion of a call to fflush(3C) or fclose(3C) on the same stream or a call to exit(2) or abort(3C).

Return Values

The fwrite() function returns the number of elements successfully written, which might be less than nitems if a write error is encountered. If size or nitems is 0, fwrite() returns 0 and the state of the stream remains unchanged. Otherwise, if a write error occurs, the error indicator for the stream is set and errno is set to indicate the error.

Errors

Refer to fputc(3C).

Usage

Because of possible differences in element length and byte ordering, files written using fwrite() are application-dependent, and possibly cannot be read using fread(3C) by a different application or by the same application on a different processor.

Attributes

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

See Also

write(2), fclose(3C), ferror(3C), fopen(3C), fread(3C), getc(3C), gets(3C), printf(3C), putc(3C), puts(3C), attributes(5), standards(5)