#include <stdio.h> ssize_t getline(char **lineptr, size_t *n, FILE *stream); ssize_t getdelim(char **lineptr, size_t *n, int delim, FILE *stream);
Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):
getline(), getdelim():
If *lineptr is NULL, then getline() will allocate a buffer for storing the line, which should be freed by the user program. (In this case, the value in *n is ignored.)
Alternatively, before calling getline(), *lineptr can contain a pointer to a malloc(3)-allocated buffer *n bytes in size. If the buffer is not large enough to hold the line, getline() resizes it with realloc(3), updating *lineptr and *n as necessary.
In either case, on a successful call, *lineptr and *n will be updated to reflect the buffer address and allocated size respectively.
getdelim() works like getline(), except that a line delimiter other than newline can be specified as the delimiter argument. As with getline(), a delimiter character is not added if one was not present in the input before end of file was reached.
Both functions return -1 on failure to read a line (including end-of-file condition).
#define _GNU_SOURCE #include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h> int main(void) { FILE *fp; char *line = NULL; size_t len = 0; ssize_t read; fp = fopen("/etc/motd", "r"); if (fp == NULL) exit(EXIT_FAILURE); while ((read = getline(&line, &len, fp)) != -1) { printf("Retrieved line of length %zu :\n", read); printf("%s", line); } free(line); exit(EXIT_SUCCESS); }