Is there any ordinary reason to use open() instead of fopen()?

Question

I\'m doing a small project in C after quite a long time away from it. These happen to include some file handling. I noticed in various documentation that there are functions

Answer 1

read() & write() use unbuffered I/O. (fd: integer file descriptor)

fread() & fwrite() use buffered I/O. (FILE* structure pointer)

Binary data written to a pipe with write() may not be able to read binary data with fread(), because of byte alignments, variable sizes, etc. Its a crap-shoot.

Most low-level device driver code uses unbuffered I/O calls.

Most application level I/O uses buffered.

Use of the FILE* and its associated functions is OK on a machine-by-machine basis: but portability is lost on other architectures in the reading and writing of binary data. fwrite() is buffered I/O and can lead to unreliable results if written for a 64 bit architecture and run on a 32bit; or (Windows/Linux). Most OSs have compatibility macros within their own code to prevent this.

For low-level binary I/O portability read() and write() guarantee the same binary reads and writes when compiled on differing architectures. The basic thing is to pick one way or the other and be consistent about it, throughout the binary suite.

  // mostly FILE*  some fd input/output parameters for compatibility
             // gives you a lot of helper functions -->
List of Functions
       Function      Description
       ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
       clearerr      check and reset stream status
       fclose        close a stream
       fdopen        stream open functions //( fd argument, returns FILE*)                      feof          check and reset stream status
       ferror        check and reset stream status
       fflush        flush a stream
       fgetc         get next character or word from input stream
       fgetpos       reposition a stream
       fgets         get a line from a stream
       fileno        get file descriptor   // (FILE* argument, returns fd) 
       fopen         stream open functions
       fprintf       formatted output conversion
       fpurge        flush a stream
       fputc         output a character or word to a stream
       fputs         output a line to a stream
       fread         binary stream input/output
       freopen       stream open functions
       fscanf        input format conversion
       fseek         reposition a stream
       fsetpos       reposition a stream
       ftell         reposition a stream
       fwrite        binary stream input/output
       getc          get next character or word from input stream
       getchar       get next character or word from input stream
       gets          get a line from a stream
       getw          get next character or word from input stream
       mktemp        make temporary filename (unique)
       perror        system error messages
       printf        formatted output conversion
       putc          output a character or word to a stream
       putchar       output a character or word to a stream
       puts          output a line to a stream
       putw          output a character or word to a stream
       remove        remove directory entry
       rewind        reposition a stream
       scanf         input format conversion
       setbuf        stream buffering operations
       setbuffer     stream buffering operations
       setlinebuf    stream buffering operations
       setvbuf       stream buffering operations
       sprintf       formatted output conversion
       sscanf        input format conversion
       strerror      system error messages
       sys_errlist   system error messages
       sys_nerr      system error messages
       tempnam       temporary file routines
       tmpfile       temporary file routines
       tmpnam        temporary file routines
       ungetc        un-get character from input stream
       vfprintf      formatted output conversion
       vfscanf       input format conversion
       vprintf       formatted output conversion
       vscanf        input format conversion
       vsprintf      formatted output conversion
       vsscanf       input format conversion

So for basic use I would personally use the above without mixing idioms too much.

By contrast,

   write()
             lseek()
             close()
             pipe()


  open()
           creat()
           fcntl() 
all use file descriptors.

These provide fine-grained control over reading and writing bytes (recommended for special devices and fifos (pipes) ).

So again, use what you need, but keep consistent in your idioms and interfaces. If most of your code base uses one mode , use that too, unless there is a real reason not to. Both sets of I/O library functions are extremely reliable and used millions of times a day.

note-- If you are interfacing C I/O with another language, (perl, python, java, c#, lua ...) check out what the developers of those languages recommend before you write your C code and save yourself some trouble.