The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6
IEEE Std 1003.1, 2004 Edition
Copyright © 2001-2004 The IEEE and The Open Group, All Rights reserved.

NAME

creat - create a new file or rewrite an existing one

SYNOPSIS

[OH] [Option Start] #include <sys/stat.h> [Option End]

#include <fcntl.h>

int creat(const char *
path, mode_t mode);

DESCRIPTION

The function call:

creat(path, mode)

shall be equivalent to:

open(path, O_WRONLY|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC, mode)

RETURN VALUE

Refer to open().

ERRORS

Refer to open().


The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES

Creating a File

The following example creates the file /tmp/file with read and write permissions for the file owner and read permission for group and others. The resulting file descriptor is assigned to the fd variable.

#include <fcntl.h>
...
int fd;
mode_t mode = S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH;
char *filename = "/tmp/file";
...
fd = creat(filename, mode);
...

APPLICATION USAGE

None.

RATIONALE

The creat() function is redundant. Its services are also provided by the open() function. It has been included primarily for historical purposes since many existing applications depend on it. It is best considered a part of the C binding rather than a function that should be provided in other languages.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

None.

SEE ALSO

open(), the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <fcntl.h>, <sys/stat.h>, <sys/types.h>

CHANGE HISTORY

First released in Issue 1. Derived from Issue 1 of the SVID.

Issue 6

In the SYNOPSIS, the optional include of the <sys/types.h> header is removed.

The following new requirements on POSIX implementations derive from alignment with the Single UNIX Specification:

End of informative text.

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