BIO_s_fd(3ssl)

BIO_s_fd3ssl

File descriptor bio

Usage

 #include <openssl/bio.h>
 const BIO_METHOD *BIO_s_fd(void);
 int BIO_set_fd(BIO *b, int fd, int c);
 int BIO_get_fd(BIO *b, int *c);
 BIO *BIO_new_fd(int fd, int close_flag);

Overview

BIO_s_fd() returns the file descriptor BIO method. This is a wrapper round the platforms file descriptor routines such as read() and write().

BIO_read_ex() and BIO_write_ex() read or write the underlying descriptor. BIO_puts() is supported but BIO_gets() is not.

If the close flag is set then close() is called on the underlying file descriptor when the BIO is freed.

BIO_reset() attempts to change the file pointer to the start of file such as by using lseek(fd, 0, 0).

BIO_seek() sets the file pointer to position ofs from start of file such as by using lseek(fd, ofs, 0).

BIO_tell() returns the current file position such as by calling lseek(fd, 0, 1).

BIO_set_fd() sets the file descriptor of BIO b to fd and the close flag to c.

BIO_get_fd() places the file descriptor of BIO b in c if it is not NULL. It also returns the file descriptor.

BIO_new_fd() returns a file descriptor BIO using fd and close_flag.

Notes

The behaviour of BIO_read_ex() and BIO_write_ex() depends on the behavior of the platforms read() and write() calls on the descriptor. If the underlying file descriptor is in a non blocking mode then the BIO will behave in the manner described in the BIO_read_ex(3) and BIO_should_retry(3) manual pages.

File descriptor BIOs should not be used for socket I/O. Use socket BIOs instead.

BIO_set_fd() and BIO_get_fd() are implemented as macros.

Return values

BIO_s_fd() returns the file descriptor BIO method.

BIO_set_fd() returns 1 on success or <=0 for failure.

BIO_get_fd() returns the file descriptor or -1 if the BIO has not been initialized. It also returns zero and negative values if other error occurs.

BIO_new_fd() returns the newly allocated BIO or NULL is an error occurred.

Examples

This is a file descriptor BIO version of "Hello World":

 BIO *out;
 out = BIO_new_fd(fileno(stdout), BIO_NOCLOSE);
 BIO_printf(out, "Hello World\n");
 BIO_free(out);

Releases

13 releases since Debian 3.0 (Woody); the text changed 12 times.

  1. 3.0
  2. 3.1
  3. 4.0
  4. 5.0
  5. 6.0
  6. 7
  7. 8
  8. 9
  9. 10
  10. 11
  11. 12
  12. 13
  13. Arch

From openssl 3.6.5-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.