[libcxx-commits] [libcxx] [libc++] Fix filebuf resetting its underlying buffer upon close() (PR #168947)

[Louis Dionne via libcxx-commits]

https://github.com/ldionne created https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/pull/168947

When closing a filebuf, we would previously call setbuf(0, 0). Not only does this get rid of any underlying buffer set by the user, but it also sets the unbuffered mode.

This means that if the filebuf is then reopened to keep writing to a file, it would have lost track of the original user-provided buffer (or the default one which has a size of 4096), and instead it would use the unbuffered mode, which is terribly slow.

This led to a bug report where users were complaining that closing and reopening the filebuf led to a significantly worse performance than using it without having closed and reopened. While this is a slightly unusual usage pattern, it should definitely work.

rdar://161833214

>From 1fc552d5f4dc059cda87ba9d2ed7b594ed0c0d14 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Louis Dionne <ldionne.2 at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2025 16:00:12 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] [libc++] Fix filebuf resetting its underlying buffer upon
 close()

When closing a filebuf, we would previously call setbuf(0, 0). Not
only does this get rid of any underlying buffer set by the user, but
it also sets the unbuffered mode.

This means that if the filebuf is then reopened to keep writing to a
file, it would have lost track of the original user-provided buffer
(or the default one which has a size of 4096), and instead it would
use the unbuffered mode, which is terribly slow.

This led to a bug report where users were complaining that closing and
reopening the filebuf led to a significantly worse performance than
using it without having closed and reopened. While this is a slightly
unusual usage pattern, it should definitely work.

rdar://161833214
---
 libcxx/include/fstream                        |   7 +-
 .../close.dont-get-rid-of-buffer.pass.cpp     | 132 ++++++++++++++++++
 2 files changed, 138 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
 create mode 100644 libcxx/test/std/input.output/file.streams/fstreams/filebuf.members/close.dont-get-rid-of-buffer.pass.cpp

diff --git a/libcxx/include/fstream b/libcxx/include/fstream
index 90e35740c17cf..acce9a026abf1 100644
--- a/libcxx/include/fstream
+++ b/libcxx/include/fstream
@@ -778,7 +778,12 @@ basic_filebuf<_CharT, _Traits>* basic_filebuf<_CharT, _Traits>::close() {
     if (fclose(__h.release()))
       __rt = nullptr;
     __file_ = nullptr;
-    setbuf(0, 0);
+    // Reset the get and the put areas without nonetheless getting rid of the
+    // underlying buffers, which might have been configured by the user who might
+    // reopen the stream.
+    this->setg(nullptr, nullptr, nullptr);
+    this->setp(nullptr, nullptr);
+    __cm_ = __no_io_operations;
   }
   return __rt;
 }
diff --git a/libcxx/test/std/input.output/file.streams/fstreams/filebuf.members/close.dont-get-rid-of-buffer.pass.cpp b/libcxx/test/std/input.output/file.streams/fstreams/filebuf.members/close.dont-get-rid-of-buffer.pass.cpp
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..6c2dcefdaaa37
--- /dev/null
+++ b/libcxx/test/std/input.output/file.streams/fstreams/filebuf.members/close.dont-get-rid-of-buffer.pass.cpp
@@ -0,0 +1,132 @@
+//===----------------------------------------------------------------------===//
+//
+// Part of the LLVM Project, under the Apache License v2.0 with LLVM Exceptions.
+// See https://llvm.org/LICENSE.txt for license information.
+// SPDX-License-Identifier: Apache-2.0 WITH LLVM-exception
+//
+//===----------------------------------------------------------------------===//
+
+// This test requires the fix to std::filebuf::close() (which is defined in the
+// built library) from PR XXX.
+// UNSUPPORTED: using-built-library-before-llvm-22
+
+// <fstream>
+
+// basic_filebuf<charT,traits>* close();
+
+//
+// Ensure that basic_filebuf::close() does not get rid of the underlying buffer set
+// via pubsetbuf(). Otherwise, reopening the stream will result in not reusing the
+// same buffer, which might be conforming but is definitely surprising. The standard
+// is not very clear on whether that is actually conforming.
+//
+
+#include <cassert>
+#include <fstream>
+#include <string>
+
+#include "platform_support.h"
+#include "test_macros.h"
+
+struct overflow_detecting_filebuf : std::filebuf {
+  explicit overflow_detecting_filebuf(bool* overflow_monitor) : did_overflow_(overflow_monitor) {
+    assert(overflow_monitor != nullptr && "must provide an overflow monitor");
+  }
+
+  using Traits = std::filebuf::traits_type;
+  virtual std::filebuf::int_type overflow(std::filebuf::int_type ch = Traits::eof()) {
+    *did_overflow_ = true;
+    return std::filebuf::overflow(ch);
+  }
+
+private:
+  bool* did_overflow_;
+};
+
+int main(int, char**) {
+  {
+    std::string temp = get_temp_file_name();
+
+    bool did_overflow;
+    overflow_detecting_filebuf buf(&did_overflow);
+
+    // Set a custom buffer (of size 32, reused below)
+    char underlying_buffer[32];
+    buf.pubsetbuf(underlying_buffer, sizeof(underlying_buffer));
+
+    // (1) Open a file and insert a first character. That should overflow() and set the underlying
+    //     put area to our internal buffer set above.
+    {
+      buf.open(temp, std::ios::out | std::ios::trunc);
+      did_overflow = false;
+      buf.sputc('c');
+      assert(did_overflow == true);
+    }
+
+    // (2) Now, confirm that we can still insert 30 more characters without calling
+    //     overflow, since we should be writing to the internal buffer.
+    {
+      did_overflow = false;
+      for (int i = 0; i != 30; ++i) {
+        buf.sputc('c');
+        assert(did_overflow == false);
+      }
+    }
+
+    // (3) Writing the last character may or may not call overflow(), depending on whether
+    //     the library implementation wants to flush as soon as the underlying buffer is
+    //     full, or on the next attempt to insert. For libc++, it doesn't overflow yet.
+    {
+      did_overflow = false;
+      buf.sputc('c');
+      LIBCPP_ASSERT(!did_overflow);
+    }
+
+    // (4) Writing one-too-many characters will overflow (with libc++).
+    {
+      did_overflow = false;
+      buf.sputc('c');
+      LIBCPP_ASSERT(did_overflow);
+    }
+
+    // Close the stream. This should NOT unset the underlying buffer we set at the beginning
+    // Unfortunately, the only way to check that is to repeat the above tests which tries to
+    // tie the presence of our custom set buffer to whether overflow() gets called. This is
+    // not entirely portable since implementations are free to call overflow() whenever they
+    // want, but in practice this works pretty portably.
+    buf.close();
+
+    // Repeat (1)
+    {
+      buf.open(temp, std::ios::out | std::ios::trunc);
+      did_overflow = false;
+      buf.sputc('c');
+      assert(did_overflow == true);
+    }
+
+    // Repeat (2)
+    {
+      did_overflow = false;
+      for (int i = 0; i != 30; ++i) {
+        buf.sputc('c');
+        assert(did_overflow == false);
+      }
+    }
+
+    // Repeat (3)
+    {
+      did_overflow = false;
+      buf.sputc('c');
+      LIBCPP_ASSERT(!did_overflow);
+    }
+
+    // Repeat (4)
+    {
+      did_overflow = false;
+      buf.sputc('c');
+      LIBCPP_ASSERT(did_overflow);
+    }
+  }
+
+  return 0;
+}