Let me revise my question to ask, why is the type of the fh arg to some
of the FILE RW functions IN? I'm thinking that the INOUT designation
indicates that the object for which fh is the handle can have updated
state for most of the RW operations, and that is the motivation for the
INOUT designation. But if that is so, then it seems that could be the
case for each of the operations since an implementation is free to
cache state information associated with any RW operation in the object
for which fh is the handle.
I do find it somewhat disconcerting (as a user) that this arg to the RW
ops does not have the same designation for all RW ops.
Linda Stanberry
lstanberry@llnl.gov
***********
The IN or INOUT designation in the generic binding does not refer to what
an implementation might do, but to what is the behavior of the functions,
as
defined by the standard. If the call modifies the opaque file object in a
way that is observable to the user, i.e., if the call modifies a property
of the opaque file
object that gen be retrieved by an MPI call, then the file handle argument
is INOUT. Otherwise, it is IN. The implementation is free to update
information
associated with a file, even if the file argument is IN, as long as the
user is not aware of this update.