The lseek() family of functions reposition the offset of the open file associated with the file
descriptor fd to offset bytes relative to the start, current position, or end of the file, when whence
has the value SEEK_SET, SEEK_CUR, or SEEK_END, respectively.
For more details, return value, and errors, see lseek(2).
Four interfaces are available: lseek(), lseek64(), llseek(), and _llseek().
lseek()
Prototype:
off_tlseek(intfd,off_toffset,intwhence);
The C library's lseek() wrapper function uses the type off_t. This is a 32-bit signed type on 32-bit
architectures, unless one compiles with
#define _FILE_OFFSET_BITS 64
in which case it is a 64-bit signed type.
lseek64()
Prototype:
off64_tlseek64(intfd,off64_toffset,intwhence);
The lseek64() library function uses a 64-bit type even when off_t is a 32-bit type. Its prototype (and
the type off64_t) is available only when one compiles with
#define _LARGEFILE64_SOURCE
The function lseek64() is available since glibc 2.1.
llseek()
Prototype:
loff_tllseek(intfd,loff_toffset,intwhence);
The type loff_t is a 64-bit signed type. The llseek() library function is available in glibc and works
without special defines. However, the glibc headers do not provide a prototype. Users should add the
above prototype, or something equivalent, to their own source. When users complained about data loss
caused by a miscompilation of e2fsck(8), glibc 2.1.3 added the link-time warning
"the `llseek´ function may be dangerous; use `lseek64´ instead."
This makes this function unusable if one desires a warning-free compilation.
Since glibc 2.28, this function symbol is no longer available to newly linked applications.
_llseek()
On 32-bit architectures, this is the system call that is used (by the C library wrapper functions) to
implement all of the above functions. The prototype is:
int_llseek(intfd,off_toffset_hi,off_toffset_lo,loff_t*result,intwhence);
For more details, see llseek(2).
64-bit systems don't need an _llseek() system call. Instead, they have an lseek(2) system call that
supports 64-bit file offsets.