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(libc.info)Streams

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Streams
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   For historical reasons, the type of the C data structure that
represents a stream is called `FILE' rather than "stream".  Since most
of the library functions deal with objects of type `FILE *', sometimes
the term "file pointer" is also used to mean "stream".  This leads to
unfortunate confusion over terminology in many books on C.  This
manual, however, is careful to use the terms "file" and "stream" only
in the technical sense.

   The `FILE' type is declared in the header file `stdio.h'.

 - Data Type: FILE
     This is the data type used to represent stream objects.  A `FILE'
     object holds all of the internal state information about the
     connection to the associated file, including such things as the
     file position indicator and buffering information.  Each stream
     also has error and end-of-file status indicators that can be
     tested with the `ferror' and `feof' functions; see Note: EOF and
     Errors.

   `FILE' objects are allocated and managed internally by the
input/output library functions.  Don't try to create your own objects of
type `FILE'; let the library do it.  Your programs should deal only
with pointers to these objects (that is, `FILE *' values) rather than
the objects themselves.