open (C System Call)

open is a system call that is used to open a new file and obtain its file descriptor.

Required Include Files

#include <fcntl.h>
 
/* Not technically required, but needed on some UNIX distributions */
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>

Function Definition

int open(const char *path, int oflags);
int open(const char *path, int oflags, mode_t mode);

Field	Description
const char *path	The relative or absolute path to the file that is to be opened.
int oflags	A bitwise 'or' separated list of values that determine the method in which the file is to be opened (whether it should be read only, read/write, whether it should be cleared when opened, etc). See a list of legal values for this field at the end.
mode_t mode	A bitwise 'or' separated list of values that determine the permissions of the file if it is created. See a list of legal values at the end.
return value	Returns the file descriptor for the new file. The file descriptor returned is always the smallest integer greater than zero that is still available. If a negative value is returned, then there was an error opening the file.

Code Snippet

Example using the open system call:

#include <unistd.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
 
int main()
{
    size_t filedesc = open("testfile.txt", O_WRONLY | O_CREAT);
    if(filedesc < 0)
        return 1;
 
    if(write(filedesc,"This will be output to testfile.txt\n", 36) != 36)
    {
        write(2,"There was an error writing to testfile.txt\n",43);
        return 1;
    }
 
    return 0;
}

Available Values for oflag

Value	Meaning
O_RDONLY	Open the file so that it is read only.
O_WRONLY	Open the file so that it is write only.
O_RDWR	Open the file so that it can be read from and written to.
O_APPEND	Append new information to the end of the file.
O_TRUNC	Initially clear all data from the file.
O_CREAT	If the file does not exist, create it. If the O_CREAT option is used, then you must include the third parameter.
O_EXCL	Combined with the O_CREAT option, it ensures that the caller must create the file. If the file already exists, the call will fail.

Available Values for mode

Value	Meaning
S_IRUSR	Set read rights for the owner to true.
S_IWUSR	Set write rights for the owner to true.
S_IXUSR	Set execution rights for the owner to true.
S_IRGRP	Set read rights for the group to true.
S_IWGRP	Set write rights for the group to true.
S_IXGRP	Set execution rights for the group to true.
S_IROTH	Set read rights for other users to true.
S_IWOTH	Set write rights for other users to true.
S_IXOTH	Set execution rights for other users to true.