fread returns the number of full items actually read, which may be less than count if an error occurs or if the end of the file is encountered before reaching count. Use the feof or ferror function to distinguish a read error from an end-of-file condition. If size or count is 0, fread returns 0 and the buffer contents are unchanged. If stream or buffer is a null pointer, fread invokes the invalid parameter handler, as described in Parameter Validation. If execution is allowed to continue, this function sets errno to EINVAL and returns 0.
See _doserrno, errno, _sys_errlist, and _sys_nerr for more information on these, and other, error codes.
The fread function reads up to count items of size bytes from the input stream and stores them in buffer. The file pointer associated with stream (if there is one) is increased by the number of bytes actually read. If the given stream is opened in text mode, carriage return–linefeed pairs are replaced with single linefeed characters. The replacement has no effect on the file pointer or the return value. The file-pointer position is indeterminate if an error occurs. The value of a partially read item cannot be determined.
This function locks out other threads. If you need a non-locking version, use _fread_nolock.