function repositions the offset of the open file associated with the
to the argument
according to the directive
The offset is set to
The offset is set to its current location plus
The offset is set to the size of the file plus
function allows the file offset to be set beyond the end
of the file (but this does not change the size of the file).
If data is later written at this point, subsequent reads of the data
in the gap (a "hole") return null bytes (aq\0aq) until
data is actually written into the gap.
Upon successful completion,
returns the resulting offset location as measured in bytes from the
beginning of the file.
Otherwise, a value of (off_t) -1 is returned and
is set to indicate the error.
is not an open file descriptor.
is not one of
or the resulting file offset would be negative,
or beyond the end of a seekable device.
The resulting file offset cannot be represented in an
is associated with a pipe, socket, or FIFO.
SVr4, 4.3BSD, POSIX.1-2001.
This document's use of
is incorrect English, but maintained for historical reasons.
Some devices are incapable of seeking and POSIX does not specify which
devices must support
On Linux, using
on a tty device returns
When converting old code, substitute values for whence with the
SVr1-3 returns long instead of off_t, BSD returns int.
Note that file descriptors created by
share the current file position pointer, so seeking on such files may be
subject to race conditions.