be inherited by other C<IO::Handle> based objects. It provides methods
which allow seeking of the file descriptors.
-If the C functions fgetpos() and fsetpos() are available, then
-C<$io-E<lt>getpos> returns an opaque value that represents the
-current position of the IO::File, and C<$io-E<gt>setpos(POS)> uses
-that value to return to a previously visited position.
+=over 4
+=item $io->getpos
+
+Returns an opaque value that represents the current position of the
+IO::File, or C<undef> if this is not possible (eg an unseekable stream such
+as a terminal, pipe or socket). If the fgetpos() function is available in
+your C library it is used to implements getpos, else perl emulates getpos
+using C's ftell() function.
+
+=item $io->setpos
+
+Uses the value of a previous getpos call to return to a previously visited
+position. Returns 0 on success, -1 on failure.
+
+=back
+
See L<perlfunc> for complete descriptions of each of the following
supported C<IO::Seekable> methods, which are just front ends for the
corresponding built-in functions:
- $io->seek( POS, WHENCE )
- $io->sysseek( POS, WHENCE )
- $io->tell
+=over 4
+
+=item $io->setpos ( POS, WHENCE )
+
+Seek the IO::File to position POS, relative to WHENCE:
+
+=over 8
+
+=item WHENCE=0 (SEEK_SET)
+
+POS is absolute position. (Seek relative to the start of the file)
+
+=item WHENCE=1 (SEEK_CUR)
+
+POS is an offset from the current position. (Seek relative to current)
+
+=item WHENCE=1 (SEEK_END)
+
+POS is an offset from the end of the file. (Seek relative to end)
+
+=back
+
+The SEEK_* constants can be imported from the C<Fcntl> module if you
+don't wish to use the numbers C<0> C<1> or C<2> in your code.
+
+Returns C<1> upon success, C<0> otherwise.
+
+=item $io->sysseek( POS, WHENCE )
+
+Similar to $io->seek, but sets the IO::File's position using the system
+call lseek(2) directly, so will confuse most perl IO operators except
+sysread and syswrite (see L<perlfunc> for full details)
+
+Returns the new position, or C<undef> on failure. A position
+of zero is returned as the string C<"0 but true">
+
+=item $io->tell
+
+Returns the IO::File's current position, or -1 on error.
+=back
+
=head1 SEE ALSO
L<perlfunc>,
use IO::File;
use IO::Seekable;
-print "1..4\n";
+print "1..6\n";
$x = new_tmpfile IO::File or print "not ";
print "ok 1\n";
$! = 0;
$x->setpos(undef);
print $! ? "ok 4 # $!\n" : "not ok 4\n";
+
+# These shenanigans are intended to make a perl IO pointing to C FILE *
+# (or equivalent) on a closed file handle. Something that will fail fgetops()
+# Might be easier to use STDIN if (-t STDIN || -P STDIN) if ttys/pipes on
+# all platforms fail to fgetpos()
+$fn = $x->fileno();
+$y = new IO::File;
+if ($y->fdopen ($fn, "r")) {
+ print "ok 5\n";
+ $x->close() or die $!;
+ $!=0;
+ $p = $y->getpos;
+ if (defined $p) {
+ print "not ok 6 # closed handle returned defined position, \$!='$!'\n";
+ } else {
+ print "ok 6 # $!\n";
+ }
+} else {
+ print "not ok 5 # failed to duplicated file number $fd\n", "not ok 6\n";
+}