c++17 - Getting FILE* in a safe C++ way

Question

Is there a way to obtain the FILE* handle of an opened file in a modern C++ way?.. I want to avoid using std::fopen from <cstdlib> as I've been warned that it's potentially unsafe.

I tried checking if there's a way to retrieve FILE* from fstream but it seems there isn't a way to do that.

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/65863042/getting-file-in-a-safe-c-way

Answer 1

I want to avoid using std::fopen from <cstdlib> as I've been warned that it's potentially unsafe.

There is nothing "unsafe" about fopen(). It is part of the C++ standard by means of the C standard.

What they probably said is that using a RAII object is best to manage the resource (the file handle), in particular if you're using exceptions in your program.

I tried checking if there's a way to retrieve FILE* from fstream but it seems there isn't a way to do that.

Not an easy, completely portable one. See questions like this one.

If you really want a FILE*, use the C API.