flockfile(3C) Standard C Library Functions flockfile(3C)
NAME
flockfile, funlockfile, ftrylockfile - acquire and release stream lock
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdio.h>
void flockfile(FILE *stream);
void funlockfile(FILE *stream);
int ftrylockfile(FILE *stream);
DESCRIPTION
The flockfile() function acquires an internal lock of a stream stream. If the lock is already acquired by another thread, the thread call-
ing flockfile() is suspended until it can acquire the lock. In the case that the stream lock is available, flockfile() not only acquires
the lock, but keeps track of the number of times it is being called by the current thread. This implies that the stream lock can be
acquired more than once by the same thread.
The funlockfile() function releases the lock being held by the current thread. In the case of recursive locking, this function must be
called the same number of times flockfile() was called. After the number of funlockfile() calls is equal to the number of flockfile()
calls, the stream lock is available for other threads to acquire.
The ftrylockfile() function acquires an internal lock of a stream stream, only if that object is available. In essence ftrylockfile() is a
non-blocking version of flockfile().
RETURN VALUES
The ftrylockfile() function returns 0 on success and non-zero to indicate a lock cannot be acquired.
EXAMPLES
Example 1: A sample program of flockfile().
The following example prints everything out together, blocking other threads that might want to write to the same file between calls to
fprintf(3C):
FILE iop;
flockfile(iop);
fprintf(iop, "hello ");
fprintf(iop, "world);
fputc(iop, 'a');
funlockfile(iop);
An unlocked interface is available in case performance is an issue. For example:
flockfile(iop);
while (!feof(iop)) {
*c++ = getc_unlocked(iop);
}
funlockfile(iop);
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Interface Stability |Standard |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|MT-Level |MT-Safe |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
SEE ALSO
intro(3), __fsetlocking(3C), ferror(3C), fprintf(3C), getc(3C), putc(3C), stdio(3C), ungetc(3C), attributes(5), standards(5)
NOTES
The interfaces on this page are as specified in IEEE Std 1003.1:2001. See standards(5).
SunOS 5.10 10 Sep 2003 flockfile(3C)