Does ifstream know why it is unable to open file?

**Frank Schmitt** · Jul 19 '05, 04:32 PM

Re: Does ifstream know why it is unable to open file?

"Alex Vinokur" <alexvn@bigfoot .com> writes:
[color=blue]
> -------------------------------
> ifstream fin ("foo.txt");
> if (!fin) cout << "Warning: Unable to open file" << endl;
> -------------------------------
>
> There are several reasons for getting that warning :
> * foo.txt doesn't exist
> * foo.txt exists but is busy
> * etc.
>
> Can ifstream know why it is unable to open the file?[/color]

If it knows, it's platform-dependent (as Victor already
pointed out).
If you don't care about portability, You might want to check
if your implementation sets errno upon failure - some of them do.

HTH & kind regards
frank

--
Frank Schmitt
4SC AG phone: +49 89 700763-0
e-mail: frank DOT schmitt AT 4sc DOT com

**Kevin Goodsell** · Jul 19 '05, 04:32 PM

Re: Does ifstream know why it is unable to open file?

Frank Schmitt wrote:[color=blue]
> "Alex Vinokur" <alexvn@bigfoot .com> writes:
>[color=green]
>>Can ifstream know why it is unable to open the file?[/color]
>
>
> If it knows, it's platform-dependent (as Victor already
> pointed out).
> If you don't care about portability, You might want to check
> if your implementation sets errno upon failure - some of them do.
>[/color]

Why would checking errno require not caring about portability? errno is
standard. Either the function will set it or not. It's easy to check and
use it if it has a meaningful value.

But I don't know how common it is for implementations to set errno in
this case.

-Kevin
--
My email address is valid, but changes periodically.
To contact me please use the address from a recent posting.

Does ifstream know why it is unable to open file?

Does ifstream know why it is unable to open file?

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