Hi, i do not think character is correct it would confuse fseek() it says: "The new position, measured in bytes" to make things more complicated fread has a "size" and returns the number of "things" read (" This number equals the number of bytes transferred only when size is 1."). therefor i would suggest to move the success case > > +The file position indicator for the stream is advanced by the number > > +of characters successfully read or written. into the "description section" And add a word about partial reads into the "return value" section. E.g. to make clear what happens when you try to read size=10 while only 4 are left. jm2c wh ________________________________________ Von: linux-man-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [linux-man-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] im Auftrag von Arkadiusz Drabczyk [arkadiusz@xxxxxxxxxxxx] Gesendet: Mittwoch, 17. Juni 2020 00:50 An: Jakub Wilk Cc: Michael Kerrisk; linux-man@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Betreff: Re: [PATCH] fread.3: Explain that file position is moved after calling fread()/fwrite() On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 09:00:17PM +0200, Jakub Wilk wrote: > * Arkadiusz Drabczyk <arkadiusz@xxxxxxxxxxxx>, 2020-06-16, 20:26: > > +The file position indicator for the stream is advanced by the number > > +of characters successfully read or written. > > s/characters/bytes/ It says `characters' in C11 and C17 https://web.archive.org/web/20181230041359if_/http://www.open-std.org/jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/abq/c17_updated_proposed_fdis.pdf standards: "Description The fread function reads, into the array pointed to by ptr , up to nmemb elements whose size is specified by size , from the stream pointed to by stream . For each object, size calls are made to the fgetc function and the results stored, in the order read, in an array of unsigned char exactly overlaying the object. The file position indicator for the stream (if defined) is advanced by the number of characters successfully read. If an error occurs, the resulting value of the file position indicator for the stream is indeterminate. If a partial element is read, its value is indeterminate." but indeed `bytes' sounds nicer especially if unsigned char is not mentioned in the manpage. I sent v2. -- Arkadiusz Drabczyk <arkadiusz@xxxxxxxxxxxx>