man pages section 3: Basic Library Functions

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Updated: July 2014
 
 

tell(3C)

Name

tell - return a file offset for a file descriptor

Synopsis

#include <unistd.h>

off_t tell(int fd);

Description

The tell() function obtains the current value of the file-position indicator for the file descriptor fd.

Return Values

Upon successful completion, tell() returns the current value of the file-position indicator for fd measured in bytes from the beginning of the file.

Otherwise, it returns −1 and sets errno to indicate the error.

Errors

The tell() function will fail if:

EBADF

The file descriptor fd is not an open file descriptor.

EOVERFLOW

The current file offset cannot be represented correctly in an object of type off_t.

ESPIPE

The file descriptor fd is associated with a pipe or FIFO.

Usage

The tell() function is equivalent to lseek(fd, 0, SEEK_CUR).

Attributes

See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

ATTRIBUTE TYPE
ATTRIBUTE VALUE
MT-Level
MT-Safe

See also

lseek(2), attributes(5)