Forward an invocation of a variadic function in C

c variadic

If you don't have a function analogous to vfprintf that takes a va_list instead of a variable number of arguments, you can't do it. See http://c-faq.com/varargs/handoff.html.

Example:

void myfun(const char *fmt, va_list argp) {
    vfprintf(stderr, fmt, argp);
}

Not directly, however it is common (and you will find almost universally the case in the standard library) for variadic functions to come in pairs with a varargs style alternative function. e.g. printf/vprintf

The v... functions take a va_list parameter, the implementation of which is often done with compiler specific 'macro magic', but you are guaranteed that calling the v... style function from a variadic function like this will work:

#include <stdarg.h>

int m_printf(char *fmt, ...)
{
    int ret;

    /* Declare a va_list type variable */
    va_list myargs;

    /* Initialise the va_list variable with the ... after fmt */

    va_start(myargs, fmt);

    /* Forward the '...' to vprintf */
    ret = vprintf(fmt, myargs);

    /* Clean up the va_list */
    va_end(myargs);

    return ret;
}

This should give you the effect that you are looking for.

If you are considering writing a variadic library function you should also consider making a va_list style companion available as part of the library. As you can see from your question, it can be prove useful for your users.

C99 supports macros with variadic arguments; depending on your compiler, you might be able to declare a macro that does what you want:

#define my_printf(format, ...) \
    do { \
        fprintf(stderr, "Calling printf with fmt %s\n", format); \
        some_other_variadac_function(format, ##__VA_ARGS__); \
    } while(0)

In general, though, the best solution is to use the va_list form of the function you're trying to wrap, should one exist.

Almost, using the facilities available in <stdarg.h>:

#include <stdarg.h>
int my_printf(char *format, ...)
{
   va_list args;
   va_start(args, format);
   int r = vprintf(format, args);
   va_end(args);
   return r;
}

Note that you will need to use the vprintf version rather than plain printf. There isn't a way to directly call a variadic function in this situation without using va_list.

Forward an invocation of a variadic function in C

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