Files

[danny]

hi

could somone please tell me or point to a sorece of information which will
explain what is happeneing on a physical level when i open/create a file in
C.

Danny

 

[Victor Bazarov]

could somone please tell me or point to a sorece of information which will
explain what is happeneing on a physical level when i open/create a file in
C.

First, for questions about C language, go to comp.lang.c. This is
a newsgroup for C++, and those are two different languages.

Second, if you want to know what's happening on a physical level,
asking in a language newsgroup doesn't make much sense. Language is
full of abstractions. Physical stuff is platform-specific. Ask in
a newsgroup dedicated to your OS.

V

 

[Howard]

hi

could somone please tell me or point to a sorece of information which will
explain what is happeneing on a physical level when i open/create a file in
C.

Danny

On a physical level? What do you mean? Mechanically, inside a floppy
drive? At the operating system level? If you can narrow down what you mean
by the "physical" level, that alone will likely point you towards a better
newsgroup to ask such questions. For example, there are newsgroups that
discuss operating systems. And newsgroups for specific implementations,
such as for Borland or Microsoft products. In any case, nothing in the C++
standard specifies anything about how files are opened (or even that they
exist, as far as I know). (Also, note that this is a C++ newsgroup, not a C
newsgroup.) You might also try some searching on groups.google.com. That's
a very handy source of links to info.

-Howard

 

[Mike Wahler]

hi

could somone please tell me or point to a sorece of information which will
explain what is happeneing on a physical level when i open/create a file in
C.

1. This newsgroup discusses only C++, not C.
comp.lang.c is just down the hall on the left.

2. Both C and C++ use abstractions ('streams') to
represent files. Neither specify a particular
implementation or 'physical' behavior. This is
because both languages are intentionally designed
to be platform-independent. E.g. it's perfectly
valid for a call to 'fopen()' to cause a drawer
of the filing cabinet in my office to slide open.

-Mike

 

[Till Crueger]

it's perfectly valid for a call to 'fopen()' to cause a drawer of the
filing cabinet in my office to slide open.

Can I quote you on that?

Till

 

[Mike Wahler]

Can I quote you on that?

Yes.

-Mike

 

[Karthik Kumar]

hi

could somone please tell me or point to a sorece of information which will
explain what is happeneing on a physical level when i open/create a file in
C.

Danny

As far as C is concerned, this particular operation is transparent.
This would be defined by the implementation that you choose ( glibc / MS
VC++ etc).
If at all you are interested for *nix OS, then get the classic book
by Maurice Bach - "The Design of the UNIX Operating System" where you
get to know about inodes etc.