Need a function for delaying without clearing buffer in C language

Need a function for delaying without clearing buffer in C language - c

I use Sleep() function under windows.h for delaying but it clears the buffer unlike sleep() under unistd.h.
Is there a function for delaying without clearing the buffer?
#include<stdio.h>
#include<windows.h>
int main(void)
{
printf("hello");
Sleep(2000);
return 0;
}

It appears that you are expected stdout to be line buffered, so that calling printf with no newline does not cause any actual output. However, the C language standard permits either line buffering or no buffering if stdout may be an interactive device. When using the Microsoft C runtime, stdout will be unbuffered.
Therefore, the string hello is being sent directly to standard output, bypassing the runtime library buffering altogether. The fact that you're calling Sleep() afterwards has nothing to do with it.
You can use setvbuf() to explicitly configure stdout for full buffering, so that the output will be sent only when you explicitly flush the stream. Note that the Microsoft C runtime does not support line buffering.
PS: you should also note that to the best of my knowledge there is no requirement for the runtime to provide a buffer of any particular size, or any rule preventing it from flushing the buffer for whatever reason might take its fancy. If your program must not write the output until a later time, I think the only completely safe way to do that is to buffer the data yourself.

Related

Why does my C code skip over the printf(); function? [duplicate]

Why does printf not flush after the call unless a newline is in the format string? Is this POSIX behavior? How might I have printf immediately flush every time?

The stdout stream is line buffered by default, so will only display what's in the buffer after it reaches a newline (or when it's told to). You have a few options to print immediately:
Print to stderrinstead using fprintf (stderr is unbuffered by default):
fprintf(stderr, "I will be printed immediately");
Flush stdout whenever you need it to using fflush:
printf("Buffered, will be flushed");
fflush(stdout); // Will now print everything in the stdout buffer
Disable buffering on stdout by using setbuf:
setbuf(stdout, NULL);
Or use the more flexible setvbuf:
setvbuf(stdout, NULL, _IONBF, 0);

No, it's not POSIX behaviour, it's ISO behaviour (well, it is POSIX behaviour but only insofar as they conform to ISO).
Standard output is line buffered if it can be detected to refer to an interactive device, otherwise it's fully buffered. So there are situations where printf won't flush, even if it gets a newline to send out, such as:
myprog >myfile.txt
This makes sense for efficiency since, if you're interacting with a user, they probably want to see every line. If you're sending the output to a file, it's most likely that there's not a user at the other end (though not impossible, they could be tailing the file). Now you could argue that the user wants to see every character but there are two problems with that.
The first is that it's not very efficient. The second is that the original ANSI C mandate was to primarily codify existing behaviour, rather than invent new behaviour, and those design decisions were made long before ANSI started the process. Even ISO nowadays treads very carefully when changing existing rules in the standards.
As to how to deal with that, if you fflush (stdout) after every output call that you want to see immediately, that will solve the problem.
Alternatively, you can use setvbuf before operating on stdout, to set it to unbuffered and you won't have to worry about adding all those fflush lines to your code:
setvbuf (stdout, NULL, _IONBF, BUFSIZ);
Just keep in mind that may affect performance quite a bit if you are sending the output to a file. Also keep in mind that support for this is implementation-defined, not guaranteed by the standard.
ISO C99 section 7.19.3/3 is the relevant bit:
When a stream is unbuffered, characters are intended to appear from the source or at the destination as soon as possible. Otherwise characters may be accumulated and transmitted to or from the host environment as a block.
When a stream is fully buffered, characters are intended to be transmitted to or from the host environment as a block when a buffer is filled.
When a stream is line buffered, characters are intended to be transmitted to or from the host environment as a block when a new-line character is encountered.
Furthermore, characters are intended to be transmitted as a block to the host environment when a buffer is filled, when input is requested on an unbuffered stream, or when input is requested on a line buffered stream that requires the transmission of characters from the host environment.
Support for these characteristics is implementation-defined, and may be affected via the setbuf and setvbuf functions.

It's probably like that because of efficiency and because if you have multiple programs writing to a single TTY, this way you don't get characters on a line interlaced. So if program A and B are outputting, you'll usually get:
program A output
program B output
program B output
program A output
program B output
This stinks, but it's better than
proprogrgraam m AB ououtputputt
prproogrgram amB A ououtputtput
program B output
Note that it isn't even guaranteed to flush on a newline, so you should flush explicitly if flushing matters to you.

To immediately flush call fflush(stdout) or fflush(NULL) (NULL means flush everything).

stdout is buffered, so will only output after a newline is printed.
To get immediate output, either:
Print to stderr.
Make stdout unbuffered.

Note: Microsoft runtime libraries do not support line buffering, so printf("will print immediately to terminal"):
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/c-runtime-library/reference/setvbuf

by default, stdout is line buffered, stderr is none buffered and file is completely buffered.

You can fprintf to stderr, which is unbuffered, instead. Or you can flush stdout when you want to. Or you can set stdout to unbuffered.

Use setbuf(stdout, NULL); to disable buffering.

There are generally 2 levels of buffering-
1. Kernel buffer Cache (makes read/write faster)
2. Buffering in I/O library (reduces no. of system calls)
Let's take example of fprintf and write().
When you call fprintf(), it doesn't wirte directly to the file. It first goes to stdio buffer in the program's memory. From there it is written to the kernel buffer cache by using write system call. So one way to skip I/O buffer is directly using write(). Other ways are by using setbuff(stream,NULL). This sets the buffering mode to no buffering and data is directly written to kernel buffer.
To forcefully make the data to be shifted to kernel buffer, we can use "\n", which in case of default buffering mode of 'line buffering', will flush I/O buffer.
Or we can use fflush(FILE *stream).
Now we are in kernel buffer. Kernel(/OS) wants to minimise disk access time and hence it reads/writes only blocks of disk. So when a read() is issued, which is a system call and can be invoked directly or through fscanf(), kernel reads the disk block from disk and stores it in a buffer. After that data is copied from here to user space.
Similarly that fprintf() data recieved from I/O buffer is written to the disk by the kernel. This makes read() write() faster.
Now to force the kernel to initiate a write(), after which data transfer is controlled by hardware controllers, there are also some ways. We can use O_SYNC or similar flags during write calls. Or we could use other functions like fsync(),fdatasync(),sync() to make the kernel initiate writes as soon as data is available in the kernel buffer.

sleep() function from <unistd.h> not executing line by line in C [duplicate]

Why does printf not flush after the call unless a newline is in the format string? Is this POSIX behavior? How might I have printf immediately flush every time?

The stdout stream is line buffered by default, so will only display what's in the buffer after it reaches a newline (or when it's told to). You have a few options to print immediately:
Print to stderrinstead using fprintf (stderr is unbuffered by default):
fprintf(stderr, "I will be printed immediately");
Flush stdout whenever you need it to using fflush:
printf("Buffered, will be flushed");
fflush(stdout); // Will now print everything in the stdout buffer
Disable buffering on stdout by using setbuf:
setbuf(stdout, NULL);
Or use the more flexible setvbuf:
setvbuf(stdout, NULL, _IONBF, 0);

It's probably like that because of efficiency and because if you have multiple programs writing to a single TTY, this way you don't get characters on a line interlaced. So if program A and B are outputting, you'll usually get:
program A output
program B output
program B output
program A output
program B output
This stinks, but it's better than
proprogrgraam m AB ououtputputt
prproogrgram amB A ououtputtput
program B output
Note that it isn't even guaranteed to flush on a newline, so you should flush explicitly if flushing matters to you.

To immediately flush call fflush(stdout) or fflush(NULL) (NULL means flush everything).

stdout is buffered, so will only output after a newline is printed.
To get immediate output, either:
Print to stderr.
Make stdout unbuffered.

Note: Microsoft runtime libraries do not support line buffering, so printf("will print immediately to terminal"):
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/c-runtime-library/reference/setvbuf

by default, stdout is line buffered, stderr is none buffered and file is completely buffered.

You can fprintf to stderr, which is unbuffered, instead. Or you can flush stdout when you want to. Or you can set stdout to unbuffered.

Use setbuf(stdout, NULL); to disable buffering.

There are generally 2 levels of buffering-
1. Kernel buffer Cache (makes read/write faster)
2. Buffering in I/O library (reduces no. of system calls)
Let's take example of fprintf and write().
When you call fprintf(), it doesn't wirte directly to the file. It first goes to stdio buffer in the program's memory. From there it is written to the kernel buffer cache by using write system call. So one way to skip I/O buffer is directly using write(). Other ways are by using setbuff(stream,NULL). This sets the buffering mode to no buffering and data is directly written to kernel buffer.
To forcefully make the data to be shifted to kernel buffer, we can use "\n", which in case of default buffering mode of 'line buffering', will flush I/O buffer.
Or we can use fflush(FILE *stream).
Now we are in kernel buffer. Kernel(/OS) wants to minimise disk access time and hence it reads/writes only blocks of disk. So when a read() is issued, which is a system call and can be invoked directly or through fscanf(), kernel reads the disk block from disk and stores it in a buffer. After that data is copied from here to user space.
Similarly that fprintf() data recieved from I/O buffer is written to the disk by the kernel. This makes read() write() faster.
Now to force the kernel to initiate a write(), after which data transfer is controlled by hardware controllers, there are also some ways. We can use O_SYNC or similar flags during write calls. Or we could use other functions like fsync(),fdatasync(),sync() to make the kernel initiate writes as soon as data is available in the kernel buffer.

Trying to create a typing effect in C [duplicate]

Why does printf not flush after the call unless a newline is in the format string? Is this POSIX behavior? How might I have printf immediately flush every time?

The stdout stream is line buffered by default, so will only display what's in the buffer after it reaches a newline (or when it's told to). You have a few options to print immediately:
Print to stderrinstead using fprintf (stderr is unbuffered by default):
fprintf(stderr, "I will be printed immediately");
Flush stdout whenever you need it to using fflush:
printf("Buffered, will be flushed");
fflush(stdout); // Will now print everything in the stdout buffer
Disable buffering on stdout by using setbuf:
setbuf(stdout, NULL);
Or use the more flexible setvbuf:
setvbuf(stdout, NULL, _IONBF, 0);

It's probably like that because of efficiency and because if you have multiple programs writing to a single TTY, this way you don't get characters on a line interlaced. So if program A and B are outputting, you'll usually get:
program A output
program B output
program B output
program A output
program B output
This stinks, but it's better than
proprogrgraam m AB ououtputputt
prproogrgram amB A ououtputtput
program B output
Note that it isn't even guaranteed to flush on a newline, so you should flush explicitly if flushing matters to you.

To immediately flush call fflush(stdout) or fflush(NULL) (NULL means flush everything).

stdout is buffered, so will only output after a newline is printed.
To get immediate output, either:
Print to stderr.
Make stdout unbuffered.

Note: Microsoft runtime libraries do not support line buffering, so printf("will print immediately to terminal"):
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/c-runtime-library/reference/setvbuf

by default, stdout is line buffered, stderr is none buffered and file is completely buffered.

You can fprintf to stderr, which is unbuffered, instead. Or you can flush stdout when you want to. Or you can set stdout to unbuffered.

Use setbuf(stdout, NULL); to disable buffering.

There are generally 2 levels of buffering-
1. Kernel buffer Cache (makes read/write faster)
2. Buffering in I/O library (reduces no. of system calls)
Let's take example of fprintf and write().
When you call fprintf(), it doesn't wirte directly to the file. It first goes to stdio buffer in the program's memory. From there it is written to the kernel buffer cache by using write system call. So one way to skip I/O buffer is directly using write(). Other ways are by using setbuff(stream,NULL). This sets the buffering mode to no buffering and data is directly written to kernel buffer.
To forcefully make the data to be shifted to kernel buffer, we can use "\n", which in case of default buffering mode of 'line buffering', will flush I/O buffer.
Or we can use fflush(FILE *stream).
Now we are in kernel buffer. Kernel(/OS) wants to minimise disk access time and hence it reads/writes only blocks of disk. So when a read() is issued, which is a system call and can be invoked directly or through fscanf(), kernel reads the disk block from disk and stores it in a buffer. After that data is copied from here to user space.
Similarly that fprintf() data recieved from I/O buffer is written to the disk by the kernel. This makes read() write() faster.
Now to force the kernel to initiate a write(), after which data transfer is controlled by hardware controllers, there are also some ways. We can use O_SYNC or similar flags during write calls. Or we could use other functions like fsync(),fdatasync(),sync() to make the kernel initiate writes as soon as data is available in the kernel buffer.

Sublime text not flushing automatically, c code [duplicate]

Why does printf not flush after the call unless a newline is in the format string? Is this POSIX behavior? How might I have printf immediately flush every time?

The stdout stream is line buffered by default, so will only display what's in the buffer after it reaches a newline (or when it's told to). You have a few options to print immediately:
Print to stderrinstead using fprintf (stderr is unbuffered by default):
fprintf(stderr, "I will be printed immediately");
Flush stdout whenever you need it to using fflush:
printf("Buffered, will be flushed");
fflush(stdout); // Will now print everything in the stdout buffer
Disable buffering on stdout by using setbuf:
setbuf(stdout, NULL);
Or use the more flexible setvbuf:
setvbuf(stdout, NULL, _IONBF, 0);

It's probably like that because of efficiency and because if you have multiple programs writing to a single TTY, this way you don't get characters on a line interlaced. So if program A and B are outputting, you'll usually get:
program A output
program B output
program B output
program A output
program B output
This stinks, but it's better than
proprogrgraam m AB ououtputputt
prproogrgram amB A ououtputtput
program B output
Note that it isn't even guaranteed to flush on a newline, so you should flush explicitly if flushing matters to you.

To immediately flush call fflush(stdout) or fflush(NULL) (NULL means flush everything).

stdout is buffered, so will only output after a newline is printed.
To get immediate output, either:
Print to stderr.
Make stdout unbuffered.

Note: Microsoft runtime libraries do not support line buffering, so printf("will print immediately to terminal"):
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cpp/c-runtime-library/reference/setvbuf

by default, stdout is line buffered, stderr is none buffered and file is completely buffered.

You can fprintf to stderr, which is unbuffered, instead. Or you can flush stdout when you want to. Or you can set stdout to unbuffered.

Use setbuf(stdout, NULL); to disable buffering.

There are generally 2 levels of buffering-
1. Kernel buffer Cache (makes read/write faster)
2. Buffering in I/O library (reduces no. of system calls)
Let's take example of fprintf and write().
When you call fprintf(), it doesn't wirte directly to the file. It first goes to stdio buffer in the program's memory. From there it is written to the kernel buffer cache by using write system call. So one way to skip I/O buffer is directly using write(). Other ways are by using setbuff(stream,NULL). This sets the buffering mode to no buffering and data is directly written to kernel buffer.
To forcefully make the data to be shifted to kernel buffer, we can use "\n", which in case of default buffering mode of 'line buffering', will flush I/O buffer.
Or we can use fflush(FILE *stream).
Now we are in kernel buffer. Kernel(/OS) wants to minimise disk access time and hence it reads/writes only blocks of disk. So when a read() is issued, which is a system call and can be invoked directly or through fscanf(), kernel reads the disk block from disk and stores it in a buffer. After that data is copied from here to user space.
Similarly that fprintf() data recieved from I/O buffer is written to the disk by the kernel. This makes read() write() faster.
Now to force the kernel to initiate a write(), after which data transfer is controlled by hardware controllers, there are also some ways. We can use O_SYNC or similar flags during write calls. Or we could use other functions like fsync(),fdatasync(),sync() to make the kernel initiate writes as soon as data is available in the kernel buffer.

Flushing buffers in C

Should fflush() not be used to flush a buffer even if it is an output stream?
What is it useful for? How do we flush a buffer in general?

Flushing the output buffers:
printf("Buffered, will be flushed");
fflush(stdout); // Prints to screen or whatever your standard out is
or
fprintf(fd, "Buffered, will be flushed");
fflush(fd); //Prints to a file
Can be a very helpful technique. Why would you want to flush an output buffer? Usually when I do it, it's because the code is crashing and I'm trying to debug something. The standard buffer will not print everytime you call printf() it waits until it's full then dumps a bunch at once. So if you're trying to check if you're making it to a function call before a crash, it's helpful to printf something like "got here!", and sometimes the buffer hasn't been flushed before the crash happens and you can't tell how far you've really gotten.
Another time that it's helpful, is in multi-process or multi-thread code. Again, the buffer doesn't always flush on a call to a printf(), so if you want to know the true order of execution of multiple processes you should fflush the buffer after every print.
I make a habit to do it, it saves me a lot of headache in debugging. The only downside I can think of to doing so is that printf() is an expensive operation (which is why it doesn't by default flush the buffer).
As far as flushing the input buffer (stdin), you should not do that. Flushing stdin is undefined behavior according to the C11 standard §7.21.5.2 part 2:
If stream points to an output stream ... the fflush function causes any unwritten data for that stream ... to be written to the file; otherwise, the behavior is undefined.
On some systems, Linux being one as you can see in the man page for fflush(), there's a defined behavior but it's system dependent so your code will not be portable.
Now if you're worried about garbage "stuck" in the input buffer you can use fpurge() on that.
See here for more on fflush() and fpurge()

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