File Handles for Standard Streams

The operating system associates a file handle with each of the streams as follows:

File Handle C Stream C++ Stream
0 stdin cin and wcin
1 stdout cout and wcout
2 stderr cerr, clog, wcerr, and wclog

The file handle and stream are not equivalent. There may be situations where a file handle is associated with a different stream. For example, file handle 2 may be associated with a stream other than stderr, cerr, or clog.



Stream Processing
Standard Streams


Redirect Standard Streams


C Library Functions: Stream Input/Output
Considerations for Programming Stream I/O