.\" $NetBSD: lseek.2,v 1.24.48.1 2019/09/05 08:19:40 martin Exp $ .\" .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1991, 1993 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. .\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software .\" without specific prior written permission. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF .\" SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .\" @(#)lseek.2 8.3 (Berkeley) 4/19/94 .\" .Dd September 2, 2019 .Dt LSEEK 2 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm lseek , .Nm seek .Nd reposition read/write file offset .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In unistd.h .Ft off_t .Fn lseek "int fildes" "off_t offset" "int whence" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn lseek function repositions the offset of the file descriptor .Fa fildes to the argument .Fa offset according to the directive .Fa whence . The argument .Fa fildes must be an open file descriptor. .Fn lseek repositions the file pointer .Fa fildes as follows: .Bl -item -offset indent .It If .Fa whence is .Dv SEEK_SET , the offset is set to .Fa offset bytes. .It If .Fa whence is .Dv SEEK_CUR , the offset is set to its current location plus .Fa offset bytes. .It If .Fa whence is .Dv SEEK_END , the offset is set to the size of the file plus .Fa offset bytes. .El .Pp The .Fn lseek function allows the file offset to be set beyond the end of the existing end-of-file of the file. If data is later written at this point, subsequent reads of the data in the gap return bytes of zeros (until data is actually written into the gap). .Pp Some devices are incapable of seeking. The value of the pointer associated with such a device is undefined. .Sh RETURN VALUES Upon successful completion, .Fn lseek returns the resulting offset location as measured in bytes from the beginning of the file. Otherwise, a value of \-1 is returned and .Va errno is set to indicate the error. .Sh ERRORS .Fn lseek will fail and the file pointer will remain unchanged if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EBADF .Fa fildes is not an open file descriptor. .It Bq Er EINVAL .Fa whence is not a proper value, or the resulting file offset would be invalid. .It Bq Er ESPIPE .Fa fildes is associated with a pipe, socket, or FIFO. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr dup 2 , .Xr open 2 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn lseek function conforms to .St -p1003.1-90 . .Sh HISTORY A .Fn seek function appeared in .At v1 , later renamed into .Fn lseek for .Dq long seek due to a larger .Fa offset argument type. .Sh BUGS This document's use of .Fa whence is incorrect English, but is maintained for historical reasons.