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fix comments

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add FIXME
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Jim Meyering
1999-04-04 14:30:30 +00:00
parent e0e1dc0bf8
commit 42edc330ed
1 changed files with 13 additions and 8 deletions
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21
lib/closeout.c
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@@ -43,14 +43,19 @@ extern int errno;
#include "error.h"
/* Close standard output, exiting with status STATUS on failure.
If a program writes *anything* to stdout, that program should close
stdout and make sure that the close succeeds. Otherwise, suppose that
you go to the extreme of checking the return status of every function
that does an explicit write to stdout. The last printf can succeed in
writing to the internal stream buffer, and yet the fclose(stdout) could
still fail (due e.g., to a disk full error) when it tries to write
out that buffered data. Thus, you would be left with an incomplete
output file and the offending program would exit successfully.
If a program writes *anything* to stdout, that program should `fflush'
stdout and make sure that it succeeds before exiting. Otherwise,
suppose that you go to the extreme of checking the return status
of every function that does an explicit write to stdout. The last
printf can succeed in writing to the internal stream buffer, and yet
the fclose(stdout) could still fail (due e.g., to a disk full error)
when it tries to write out that buffered data. Thus, you would be
left with an incomplete output file and the offending program would
exit successfully.
FIXME: note the fflush suggested above is implicit in the fclose
we actually do below. Consider doing only the fflush and/or using
setvbuf to inhibit buffering.
Besides, it's wasteful to check the return value from every call
that writes to stdout -- just let the internal stream state record