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# setbuf

From cppreference.com
< c‎ | io

Defined in header `<stdio.h>` |  |

void setbuf( FILE *stream, char *buffer ); |  | (until C99)
void setbuf( FILE *restrict stream, char *restrict buffer ); |  | (since C99)

Sets the internal buffer to use for stream operations. It should be at least `BUFSIZ` characters long.

If `buffer` is not null, equivalent to setvbuf(stream, buffer, _IOFBF, BUFSIZ)

If `buffer` is null, equivalent to setvbuf(stream, NULL, _IONBF, 0), which turns off buffering.

### [edit] Parameters

stream | - | the file stream to set the buffer to
buffer | - | pointer to a buffer for the stream to use. If NULL is supplied, the buffering is turned off

### [edit] Return value

None.

### [edit] Example

Run this code

    #include <stdio.h>

    int main(void)
    {
        int file_size;
        char buffer[BUFSIZ];
        FILE * fp = fopen("test.txt","w+");
        setbuf(fp,buffer);

        /* Exhibit the contents of buffer. */
        fputs ("aaa",fp);
        printf("%s\n", buffer);
        fputs ("bbb",fp);
        printf("%s\n", buffer);
        fputs ("ccc",fp);
        printf("%s\n", buffer);
        file_size = ftell(fp);
        printf("file_size = %d\n", file_size);
        fflush (fp);              /* flush buffer */
        printf("%s\n", buffer);
        fputs ("ddd",fp);
        printf("%s\n", buffer);
        fputs ("eee",fp);
        printf("%s\n", buffer);

        rewind(fp);               /* flush buffer and rewind file */
        char buf[20];
        fgets(buf,sizeof buf,fp);
        printf("%s\n", buf);

        fclose(fp);

        return 0;
    }

Output:

    aaa
    aaabbb
    aaabbbccc
    file_size = 9
    aaabbbccc
    dddbbbccc
    dddeeeccc
    aaabbbcccdddeee

### [edit] See also

setvbuf | sets the buffer and its size for a file stream (function) [edit]
C++ documentation for setbuf

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