--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,3 +1,30 @@
+2011-03-20  Paul Eggert  <eggert@cs.ucla.edu>
+
+	stdio: don't require ignore_value around fwrite
+
+	This patch works around libc bug 11959
+	<http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=11959>.
+	Without this patch, applications must often write
+	ignore_value (fwrite (...)) even though the ignore_value is
+	not helpful here.  It's common to write many objects, using
+	fwrite/printf/etc., and then use ferror to detect output error.
+
+	I considered making this patch optional, but decided against it,
+	because libc is obviously being inconsistent here: there is no
+	reason libc should insist that user code must inspect fwrite
+	return's value without also insisting that it inspect printf's,
+	putchar's, etc.  If user code wants to have a strict style where
+	all these functions' values are checked (so that ferror need not
+	be checked), we could add support for that style in a new gnulib
+	module, but in the meantime it's better to be consistent and to
+	support common usage.
+
+	* lib/stdio.in.h (rpl_fwrite): Define this wrapper around fwrite,
+	to work around libc bug 11959, if __USE_FORTIFY_LEVEL indicates
+	that we are compiling in checking mode, and if not C++, and
+	if not already wrapping fwrite for some other reason.
+	(fwrite): #define to rpl_fwrite if the latter is defined.
+
 2011-03-20  Bruno Haible  <bruno@clisp.org>
 
 	verror: Fix compilation error introduced on 2011-02-13.

--- a/lib/stdio.in.h
+++ b/lib/stdio.in.h
@@ -496,6 +496,23 @@
 # else
 _GL_CXXALIAS_SYS (fwrite, size_t,
                   (const void *ptr, size_t s, size_t n, FILE *stream));
+
+/* Work around glibc bug 11959
+   <http://sources.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=11959>,
+   which sometimes causes an unwanted diagnostic for fwrite calls.
+   This affects only function declaration attributes, so it's not
+   needed for C++.  */
+#  if !defined __cplusplus && 0 < __USE_FORTIFY_LEVEL
+static inline size_t _GL_ARG_NONNULL ((1, 4))
+rpl_fwrite (const void *ptr, size_t s, size_t n, FILE *stream)
+{
+  size_t r = fwrite (ptr, s, n, stream);
+  (void) r;
+  return r;
+}
+#   undef fwrite
+#   define fwrite rpl_fwrite
+#  endif
 # endif
 _GL_CXXALIASWARN (fwrite);
 #endif