Tried and true simple file copying code in C?

Question

This looks like a simple question, but I didn't find anything similar here.

Since there is no file copy function in C, we have to implement file copying ourselves, but I don't like reinventing the wheel even for trivial stuff like that, so I'd like to ask the cloud:

1. What code would you recommend for file copying using fopen()/fread()/fwrite()?
   • What code would you recommend for file copying using open()/read()/write()?

This code should be portable (windows/mac/linux/bsd/qnx/younameit), stable, time tested, fast, memory efficient and etc. Getting into specific system's internals to squeeze some more performance is welcomed (like getting filesystem cluster size).

This seems like a trivial question but, for example, source code for CP command isn't 10 lines of C code.

Answer 1

This is the function I use when I need to copy from one file to another - with test harness:

/*
@(#)File:           $RCSfile: fcopy.c,v $
@(#)Version:        $Revision: 1.11 $
@(#)Last changed:   $Date: 2008/02/11 07:28:06 $
@(#)Purpose:        Copy the rest of file1 to file2
@(#)Author:         J Leffler
@(#)Modified:       1991,1997,2000,2003,2005,2008
*/

/*TABSTOP=4*/

#include "jlss.h"
#include "stderr.h"

#ifndef lint
/* Prevent over-aggressive optimizers from eliminating ID string */
const char jlss_id_fcopy_c[] = "@(#)$Id: fcopy.c,v 1.11 2008/02/11 07:28:06 jleffler Exp $";
#endif /* lint */

void fcopy(FILE *f1, FILE *f2)
{
    char            buffer[BUFSIZ];
    size_t          n;

    while ((n = fread(buffer, sizeof(char), sizeof(buffer), f1)) > 0)
    {
        if (fwrite(buffer, sizeof(char), n, f2) != n)
            err_syserr("write failed\n");
    }
}

#ifdef TEST

int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    FILE *fp1;
    FILE *fp2;

    err_setarg0(argv[0]);
    if (argc != 3)
        err_usage("from to");
    if ((fp1 = fopen(argv[1], "rb")) == 0)
        err_syserr("cannot open file %s for reading\n", argv[1]);
    if ((fp2 = fopen(argv[2], "wb")) == 0)
        err_syserr("cannot open file %s for writing\n", argv[2]);
    fcopy(fp1, fp2);
    return(0);
}

#endif /* TEST */

Clearly, this version uses file pointers from standard I/O and not file descriptors, but it is reasonably efficient and about as portable as it can be.

---

Well, except the error function - that's peculiar to me. As long as you handle errors cleanly, you should be OK. The "jlss.h" header declares fcopy(); the "stderr.h" header declares err_syserr() amongst many other similar error reporting functions. A simple version of the function follows - the real one adds the program name and does some other stuff.

#include "stderr.h"
#include <stdarg.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <errno.h>

void err_syserr(const char *fmt, ...)
{
    int errnum = errno;
    va_list args;
    va_start(args, fmt);
    vfprintf(stderr, fmt, args);
    va_end(args);
    if (errnum != 0)
        fprintf(stderr, "(%d: %s)\n", errnum, strerror(errnum));
    exit(1);
}

---

The code above may be treated as having a modern BSD license or GPL v3 at your choice.