Search code examples
stdoutbufferingunbuffered

Buffering Standard Output (STDOUT)

By default, is STDOUT unbuffered? If not what is the type of its default buffering

Thanks

Solution

  • You didn't give a language, but assuming that you're using C's stdio functions (fopen() etc.) or a language that uses these (and most do, for portability reasons):

    It depends on the underlying C runtime library.

    Most libraries will try to detect whether STDOUT is connected to a terminal, and avoid buffering if so, and perform block buffering (e.g. my Linux system buffers 8Kb at a time) if not.