read() function with THREE arguments???

[Zettai Baka]

I am referencing a code sample I found on the web, and there is a read() statement which takes THREE arguments. Open this URL:

http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/People/mfolk/ch9progs.c

and look in the function short getroot(). You will see:

read(btfd, &root, 2);

The read() that I know takes only two. Now I know that this code follows an outdated standard, but I cannot find any documentation of a read() function that takes three arguments at all.

Anyone have any idea what the above statement does?

Also, what on earth is 0L?

lseek(btfd, 0L, 0);

[helios]

The read() you know is a non-static function: std::istream::read(). It can't be called without an std::istream object.
That read() is a completely different function declared in one of those headers. You'll have to see them in order to know what it does.

0L is the same as (long)0.

[Zettai Baka]

Thanks, I think I've found it here: http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/000095399/functions/read.html