CLOSE
Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (2)
Updated: February 18, 1995
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NAME
close - close a file descriptor
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int close(int fd);
DESCRIPTION
close
closes a file descriptor, so that it no longer refers to any file and
may be reused.
If
fd
is the last copy of a particular file descriptor the resources
associated with it are freed; for example any locks held are removed
and if the descriptor was the last reference to a file which has been
removed using
unlink
the file is deleted.
RETURN VALUE
close
returns zero on success, or -1 if an error occurred.
ERRORS
- EBADF
-
fd
isn't a valid open file descriptor.
CONFORMING TO
SVID, AT&T, POSIX, X/OPEN, BSD 4.3
NOTES
Not checking the return value of close is a common but nevertheless
serious programming error. File system implementations which use
techniques as ``write-behind'' to increase performance may lead to
write(2)
succeeding, although the data has not been written yet. The error
status may be reported at a later write operation, but it is guaranteed
to be reported on closing the file. Not checking the return value when
closing the file may lead to silent loss of data. This can especially
be observed with NFS and disk quotas.
SEE ALSO
open(2), fcntl(2), shutdown(2),
unlink(2), fclose(3).
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- RETURN VALUE
-
- ERRORS
-
- CONFORMING TO
-
- NOTES
-
- SEE ALSO
-
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