Subject: Re: fgets prototype bug?
To: Simon Burge <>
From: Johan Danielsson <>
List: tech-userlevel
Date: 11/16/1999 09:00:57
Simon Burge <> writes:

> Is is a bug that fgets() takes an "int" as the size of the object
> and not a size_t?

Yes, but we can't do much about it, since it's defined that way in
`ANSI C', and C9x. C doesn't have an ssize_t type.

You *could* have different prototypes if _ANSI_C_SOURCE (or something)
is defined, but I really hate such solutions. The fgets function
           #include <stdio.h>
           char *fgets(char * restrict s, int n,
                FILE * restrict stream);
   The fgets function reads at most one less than the number of
   characters specified by n from the stream pointed to by stream into
   the array pointed to by s. No additional characters are read after
   a new-line character (which is retained) or after end-of-file.  A
   null character is written immediately after the last character read
   into the array.
   The fgets function returns s if successful.  If end-of-file is
   encountered and no characters have been read into the array, the
   contents of the array remain unchanged and a null pointer is
   returned.  If a read error occurs during the operation, the array
   contents are indeterminate and a null pointer is returned.