Related
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.
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.
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.
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.
I'm just curious which conditions should be satisfied to flush stdout buffer automatically.
First of all I was confused that this pseudo code doesn't print output every iteration:
while (1) {
printf("Any text");
sleep(1);
}
But if I add newline character it will.
After few experiments i found that on my machine stdout buffer is flushed:
When I put to stdout 1025 characters or more;
When I read stdin;
When I put newline character to stdout;
The first condition is totally clear - when the buffer is full it should be flushed. The second one is also reasonable. But why newline character causes flushing? What are the others implicit conditions for this?
Rules of automatic flushing stdout buffer is implementation-defined (ID). It is ID when the stream is unbuffered, fully buffered, or line buffered.
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, ... C11dr §7.21.3 3
I'm just curious which conditions should be satisfied to flush stdout buffer automatically.
If code wants to insure output is certainly flushed, use fflush(). Other conditions that may automatically flush the stream are implementation defined.
A output stream which is line-buffered shall be flushed whenever a newline is output.
An implementation may (but is not required to) flush all line-buffered output streams whenever a read is attempted from any line-buffered input stream.
Implementations are not allowed to make streams fully-buffered by default unless it can be determined that they are not associated with an "interactive device". So when stdin/stdout are terminals they can't be fully-buffered, only line-buffered (or unbuffered).
If you only need flushing when the output is to a terminal, it suffices to assume that writing a newline results in flushing. Otherwise you should explicitly call fflush wherever you need flushing.
See the man page for setbuf(3). By default, stdout is set to line buffering mode.
printf() and its variants work with buffered output, and delegate to write(). So this buffering is controlled by the C library implementation of printf, with the buffer and buffer settings located in the FILE structure.
It's also worth noting the difference between section 3 and section 2 of the unix man pages. Section 2 is made up of function calls that directly talk to the operating system and do things that it would otherwise be impossible to do from a pure user program. Section 3 is made up of function calls that a user could reproduce on their own, which often delegate to section 2 calls. Section 2 functions contain the low-level "magic" that allow C programs to interact with the outside world and perform I/O. Section 3 functions can provide a more convenient interface to the section 2 functions.
printf, scanf, getchar, fputs, and other FILE * functions all are section 3 functions that delegate to write() and read(), which are section 2 functions. read() and write() do not buffer. printf() interacts with the buffer in the FILE structure, and occasionally decides to send the contents of that buffer out through write().
There are many circumstances when buffered output on a stream is flushed automatically:
When you try to do output and the output buffer is full.
When the stream is closed.
When the program terminates by calling exit.
When a newline is written, if the stream is line buffered.
Whenever an input operation on any stream actually reads data from its file.
stdout is line buffered by default.
If you want to flush the buffered output at another time,You can call fflush.
Online C2011 standard
7.21.3 Files
...
3 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.
...
7 At program startup, three text streams are predefined and need not be opened explicitly
— standard input (for reading conventional input), standard output (for writing
conventional output), and standard error (for writing diagnostic output). As initially
opened, the standard error stream is not fully buffered; the standard input and standard
output streams are fully buffered if and only if the stream can be determined not to refer
to an interactive device.
So, a line buffered stream will flush on a newline. On most systems I have experience with, stdout is line buffered in an interactive session.