Read bytes from a chosen file offset.

C: Check fseek before reading so an unsupported or invalid seek is not ignored.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <ctype.h>
#include <stdint.h>
#include <stdbool.h>
#include <errno.h>
#include <limits.h>
#include <math.h>
#include <time.h>

int main(void) {
    FILE *file=fopen("data.bin","rb");
    if (file==NULL) return 1;
    if (fseek(file,2,SEEK_SET)!=0) { fclose(file); return 1; }
    int value=fgetc(file);
    if (value==EOF) { fclose(file); return 1; }
    printf("%c\n",value);
    if (fclose(file)!=0) return 1;
    return 0;
}

Expected output EXAMPLE

Details

Save as snippet.c; compile with gcc -std=c17 -Wall -Wextra snippet.c -lm -o snippet, then run ./snippet. Check fseek before reading so an unsupported or invalid seek is not ignored.

✓ Verified

Tested on Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS · 2026-11-02 18:02:36 UTC · gcc (Ubuntu 13.3.0-6ubuntu2~24.04.1) 13.3.0 · gcc 4:13.2.0-7ubuntu1

Test inputs, results and environment

The exact published code ran in a dedicated Linux test container with prepared inputs. Unprivileged snippet process, external networking disabled, read-only root filesystem, and a fresh temporary working directory. Fixtures and output records are isolated from the application database. Testing covers this example and its stated checks, not every input, operating system, or runtime version. The Linux container shares its host's kernel; this is not a native Windows test.

Architecture / host kernel: x86_64 / 6.18.54.1-microsoft-standard-WSL2
Snippet identity / locale: uid=65534, gid=65534 (unprivileged) / C.UTF-8
Interpreter invocation: gcc -std=c17 -Wall -Wextra -Werror snippet.c -lm -o snippet && ./snippet
Container image ID: sha256:32dc2d998158b6554c99b73b533f423696a0f3e31e8cbea9db10b5eee9a2fadd
Code SHA-256: 13c86e47b67117ca2c83726bf938d42fa200a1914adfa068e0fe01f4643af8e6
Dependencies: gcc 4:13.2.0-7ubuntu1

Test input setup

These are the prepared inputs used by the test harness. See Details above for the prerequisites and how to run this example.

printf abcdef > data.bin

Observed standard output

Exit code: 0. Standard error: empty. Validation: Exact stdout comparison. System-dependent values above are one recorded run.