Here are more details on how you should define the four hook functions that a custom stream needs.
You should define the function to read data from the cookie as:
ssize_t reader (void *cookie, char *buffer, size_t size)
This is very similar to the read function; see Input and Output Primitives. Your function should transfer up to size bytes into
the buffer, and return the number of bytes read, or zero to
indicate end-of-file. You can return a value of -1 to indicate
an error.
You should define the function to write data to the cookie as:
ssize_t writer (void *cookie, const char *buffer, size_t size)
This is very similar to the write function; see Input and Output Primitives. Your function should transfer up to size bytes from
the buffer, and return the number of bytes written. You can return a
value of 0 to indicate an error. You must not return any
negative value.
You should define the function to perform seek operations on the cookie as:
int seeker (void *cookie, off64_t *position, int whence)
For this function, the position and whence arguments are
interpreted as for fgetpos; see Portable File-Position Functions.
After doing the seek operation, your function should store the resulting
file position relative to the beginning of the file in position.
Your function should return a value of 0 on success and -1
to indicate an error.
You should define the function to do cleanup operations on the cookie appropriate for closing the stream as:
int cleaner (void *cookie)
Your function should return -1 to indicate an error, and 0
otherwise.
This is the data type that the read function for a custom stream should have. If you declare the function as shown above, this is the type it will have.
The data type of the write function for a custom stream.
The data type of the seek function for a custom stream.
The data type of the close function for a custom stream.