creat - Man Page

create a new file or rewrite an existing one

Prolog

This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may not be implemented on Linux.

Synopsis

#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>

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

Description

The creat() function shall behave as if it is implemented as follows:

int creat(const char *path, mode_t mode)
{
    return 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 *pathname = "/tmp/file";
...
fd = creat(pathname, 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

mknod(), open()

The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2017, <fcntl.h>, <sys_stat.h>, <sys_types.h>

Referenced By

fchmod(3p), fcntl.h(0p), fopen(3p), fstatvfs(3p), lockf(3p), mknod(3p), open(3p), pax(1p), posix_fallocate(3p), touch(1p), umask(3p), write(3p).

2017 IEEE/The Open Group POSIX Programmer's Manual