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C POSIX library

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3/6/23, 8:29 PM C POSIX library - Wikipedia

The C POSIX library is a specification of a C standard library for POSIX systems. It was
developed at the same time as the ANSI C standard. Some effort was made to make POSIX
compatible with standard C; POSIX includes additional functions to those introduced in standard
C.

C POSIX library header files

First
Header file Description
released

<aio.h> Asynchronous input and output Issue 5

Functions for manipulating numeric IP addresses (part of Berkeley

<arpa/inet.h> Issue 6
sockets)
<assert.h> Verify assumptions Issue 1

<complex.h> Complex Arithmetic, see C mathematical functions Issue 6

<cpio.h> Magic numbers for the cpio archive format Issue 3

<ctype.h> Character types Issue 1

<dirent.h> Allows the opening and listing of directories Issue 2

<dlfcn.h> Dynamic linking Issue 5

<errno.h> Retrieving Error Number Issue 1

<fcntl.h> File opening, locking and other operations Issue 1

<fenv.h> Floating-Point Environment (FPE), see C mathematical functions Issue 6

<float.h> Floating-point types, see C data types Issue 4

<fmtmsg.h> Message display structures Issue 4

<fnmatch.h> Filename matching Issue 4

<ftw.h> File tree traversal Issue 1

<glob.h> Pathname "globbing" (pattern-matching) Issue 4

<grp.h> User group information and control Issue 1

<iconv.h> Codeset conversion facility Issue 4

<inttypes.h> Fixed sized integer types, see C data types Issue 5

<iso646.h> Alternative spellings, see C alternative tokens Issue 5

<langinfo.h> Language information constants – builds on C localization functions Issue 2

<libgen.h> Pathname manipulation Issue 4

<limits.h> Implementation-defined constants, see C data types Issue 1

<locale.h> Category macros, see C localization functions Issue 3

<math.h> Mathematical declarations, see C mathematical functions Issue 1

<monetary.h> String formatting of monetary units Issue 4

<mqueue.h> Message queue Issue 5

<ndbm.h> NDBM database operations Issue 4

<net/if.h> Listing of local network interfaces Issue 6

Translating protocol and host names into numeric addresses (part of

<netdb.h> Issue 6
Berkeley sockets)

<netinet/in.h> Defines Internet protocol and address family (part of Berkeley sockets) Issue 6

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First
Header file Description
released

<netinet/tcp.h> Additional TCP control options (part of Berkeley sockets) Issue 6

<nl_types.h> Localization message catalog functions Issue 2

<poll.h> Asynchronous file descriptor multiplexing Issue 4

<pthread.h> Defines an API for creating and manipulating POSIX threads Issue 5

<pwd.h> passwd (user information) access and control Issue 1

<regex.h> Regular expression matching Issue 4

<sched.h> Execution scheduling Issue 5

<search.h> Search tables Issue 1

<semaphore.h> POSIX semaphores Issue 5

<setjmp.h> Stack environment declarations Issue 1

<signal.h> Signals, see C signal handling Issue 1

<spawn.h> Process spawning Issue 6

<stdarg.h> Handle Variable Argument List Issue 4

<stdbool.h> Boolean type and values, see C data types Issue 6

<stddef.h> Standard type definitions, see C data types Issue 4

<stdint.h> Integer types, see C data types Issue 6

<stdio.h> Standard buffered input/output, see C file input/output Issue 1

<stdlib.h> Standard library definitions, see C standard library Issue 3

<string.h> Several String Operations, see C string handling Issue 1

<strings.h> Case-insensitive string comparisons Issue 4

<stropts.h> Stream manipulation, including ioctl Issue 4

<sys/ipc.h> Inter-process communication (IPC) Issue 2

Memory management, including POSIX shared memory and memory
<sys/mman.h> Issue 4
mapped files

<sys/msg.h> POSIX message queues Issue 2

<sys/resource.h> Resource usage, priorities, and limiting Issue 4

<sys/select.h> Synchronous I/O multiplexing Issue 6

<sys/sem.h> XSI (SysV style) semaphores Issue 2

<sys/shm.h> XSI (SysV style) shared memory Issue 2

<sys/socket.h> Main Berkeley sockets header Issue 6

<sys/stat.h> File information (stat et al.) Issue 1

<sys/statvfs.h> File System information Issue 4

<sys/time.h> Time and date functions and structures Issue 4

<sys/times.h> File access and modification times Issue 1

<sys/types.h> Various data types used elsewhere Issue 1

<sys/uio.h> Vectored I/O operations Issue 4

<sys/un.h> Unix domain sockets Issue 6

<sys/utsname.h> Operating system information, including uname Issue 1

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First
Header file Description
released

<sys/wait.h> Status of terminated child processes (see wait) Issue 3

<syslog.h> System error logging Issue 4

<tar.h> Magic numbers for the tar archive format Issue 3

<termios.h> Allows terminal I/O interfaces Issue 3

<tgmath.h> Type-Generic Macros, see C mathematical functions Issue 6

<time.h> Type-Generic Macros, see C date and time functions Issue 1

<trace.h> Tracing of runtime behavior (DEPRECATED) Issue 6

<ulimit.h> Resource limiting (DEPRECATED in favor of <sys/resource.h>) Issue 1

<unistd.h> Various essential POSIX functions and constants Issue 1

<utime.h> inode access and modification times Issue 3

<utmpx.h> User accounting database functions Issue 4

<wchar.h> Wide-Character Handling, see C string handling Issue 4

Wide-Character Classification and Mapping Utilities, see C character

<wctype.h> Issue 5
classification

<wordexp.h> Word-expansion like the shell would perform Issue 4

References
Official List of headers in the POSIX library on opengroup.org (http://www.opengroup.org/online
pubs/9699919799/idx/head.html)
"Lists headers in the POSIX library" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100724201155/http://www.
space.unibe.ch/comp_doc/c_manual/C/FUNCTIONS/funcref.htm). Archived from the original (h
ttp://www.space.unibe.ch/comp_doc/c_manual/C/FUNCTIONS/funcref.htm) on July 24, 2010.
Retrieved November 6, 2007.
Description of the posix library from the Flux OSKit (http://www.cs.utah.edu/flux/oskit/html/oskit-
wwwch20.html)

Further reading
Gallmeister, Bill (January 1, 1995), POSIX.4 Programmers Guide: Programming for the Real
World (http://oreilly.com/catalog/9781565920743/) (1st ed.), O'Reilly Media, ISBN 1-56592-
074-0

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