boostorg / boostorg/iostreams

No way to create empty + appendable files via file_descriptor c-tor

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Dominant language
C
Stars
48
Forks
124
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Description

This is perhaps some corner case, but consider that you want to use `file_descriptor` to manage some log file. Writes to log files are typically write-only-to-the-end, but you may also want to do random reads on logs. Random reads via `pread` are no problem in Linux (they don't move file pointer), but random reads via `ReadFile` with offsets specified in `OVERLAPPED` struct actually move file pointer, so subsequent writes will not be at the end of file.

The problem is fixed by opening a file with O_APPEND/FILE_APPEND_DATA when creating a new file. It would be nice to be able to forcefully open a "fresh" file with `std::ios_base::app flag`. I imagine this could be done by allowing `std::ios_base::trunc | std::ios_base::app` combo. The effect should be as follows:

```C++
#if defined(BOOST_IOSTREAMS_WINDOWS)
DWORD dwDesiredAccess;
if (enable_append) {
dwDesiredAccess = GENERIC_READ | FILE_APPEND_DATA | FILE_WRITE_ATTRIBUTES | FILE_WRITE_EA |
STANDARD_RIGHTS_WRITE | SYNCHRONIZE;
} else {
dwDesiredAccess = GENERIC_READ | GENERIC_WRITE;
}

HANDLE file_handle =
::CreateFileA(file_name.c_str(), dwDesiredAccess, FILE_SHARE_READ | FILE_SHARE_WRITE,
NULL, // lpSecurityAttributes
CREATE_ALWAYS, FILE_ATTRIBUTE_NORMAL,
NULL); // hTemplateFile
#else
// Calculate oflag argument to open.
int oflag = O_CREAT | O_TRUNC | O_RDWR;
if (enable_append) {
oflag |= O_APPEND;
}
#ifdef _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE
oflag |= O_LARGEFILE;
#endif

// Calculate pmode argument to open.
mode_t pmode = S_IRUSR | S_IWUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IWGRP | S_IROTH | S_IWOTH;

// Open file.
int file_handle = BOOST_IOSTREAMS_FD_OPEN(file_name.c_str(), oflag, pmode);
#endif
```

Contributor guide

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Research direction

Start at the file_descriptor constructor and its platform-specific file-opening logic. Compare the requested std::ios_base::trunc | std::ios_base::app behavior with the Windows CreateFileA and POSIX open flags shown in the issue. Done means a newly created file is empty, supports reads, and appends writes after random reads on both platforms.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
operating-systems
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
42/100

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