fgetc(3) Library Functions Manual fgetc(3)
NAME
fgetc, fgets, getc, getchar, ungetc - input of characters and strings
LIBRARY
Standard C library (libc, -lc)
SYNOPSIS
#include <stdio.h>
int fgetc(FILE *stream);
int getc(FILE *stream);
int getchar(void);
char *fgets(char s[restrict .size], int size, FILE *restrict stream);
int ungetc(int c, FILE *stream);
DESCRIPTION
fgetc() reads the next character from stream and returns it as an un-
signed char cast to an int, or EOF on end of file or error.
getc() is equivalent to fgetc() except that it may be implemented as a
macro which evaluates stream more than once.
getchar() is equivalent to getc(stdin).
fgets() reads in at most one less than size characters from stream and
stores them into the buffer pointed to by s. Reading stops after an EOF
or a newline. If a newline is read, it is stored into the buffer. A
terminating null byte ('\0') is stored after the last character in the
buffer.
ungetc() pushes c back to stream, cast to unsigned char, where it is
available for subsequent read operations. Pushed-back characters will
be returned in reverse order; only one pushback is guaranteed.
Calls to the functions described here can be mixed with each other and
with calls to other input functions from the stdio library for the same
input stream.
For nonlocking counterparts, see unlocked_stdio(3).
RETURN VALUE
fgetc(), getc(), and getchar() return the character read as an unsigned
char cast to an int or EOF on end of file or error.
fgets() returns s on success, and NULL on error or when end of file oc-
curs while no characters have been read.
ungetc() returns c on success, or EOF on error.
ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
┌────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
│ Interface │ Attribute │ Value │
├────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
│ fgetc(), fgets(), getc(), getchar(), │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
│ ungetc() │ │ │
└────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘
STANDARDS
C11, POSIX.1-2008.
HISTORY
POSIX.1-2001, C89.
NOTES
It is not advisable to mix calls to input functions from the stdio li-
brary with low-level calls to read(2) for the file descriptor associated
with the input stream; the results will be undefined and very probably
not what you want.
SEE ALSO
read(2), write(2), ferror(3), fgetwc(3), fgetws(3), fopen(3), fread(3),
fseek(3), getline(3), gets(3), getwchar(3), puts(3), scanf(3),
ungetwc(3), unlocked_stdio(3), feature_test_macros(7)
Linux man-pages 6.9.1 2024-06-15 fgetc(3)
Generated by dwww version 1.16 on Tue Dec 16 04:02:28 CET 2025.