Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!mcvax!kth!sunic!maxim!prc
From: prc@erbe.se (Robert Claeson)
Newsgroups: comp.sources.games.bugs
Subject: Re: What setbuf() is and why you should use it
Keywords: curses fflush setbuf stdio
Message-ID: <763@maxim.erbe.se>
Date: 19 Jul 89 07:58:05 GMT
References: <283@wet.UUCP>
Reply-To: rclaeson@erbe.se (Robert Claeson)
Organization: Bonzo Fan Club
Lines: 34

In article <283@wet.UUCP> epsilon@wet.UUCP (Eric P. Scott) writes:

>The fix is very simple:
>put
>	setbuf(stdout, malloc(BUFSIZ));

>early in main(), and (if you've done any output)

>	fflush(stdout);

>before asking for terminal input, sleeping, going heavily
>compute-bound, changing tty modes, or using fork/exec/system-type
>calls.  This causes stdio to store up to BUFSIZ (defined in
><stdio.h>) characters before demanding a context switch.  Since
>BUFSIZ is typically 512 or 1024, this can be a substantial
>improvement.

Or, on at least System V-type systems, use the call:

	#define BUFFER_SIZE	32768

	setvbuf(stdout, malloc(BUFFER_SIZE), _IOFBF, BUFFER_SIZE);

which can buffer much more than the setbuf() construct above. The buffer
can be of arbitrary size.

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          Robert Claeson      E-mail: rclaeson@erbe.se
	  ERBE DATA AB