CLOSE(3P) POSIX Programmer's Manual CLOSE(3P)
PROLOG
This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux
implementation of this interface may differ (consult the corresponding
Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface may
not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
close -- close a file descriptor
SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
int close(int fildes);
DESCRIPTION
The close() function shall deallocate the file descriptor indicated by
fildes. To deallocate means to make the file descriptor available for
return by subsequent calls to open() or other functions that allocate
file descriptors. All outstanding record locks owned by the process on
the file associated with the file descriptor shall be removed (that is,
unlocked).
If close() is interrupted by a signal that is to be caught, it shall
return -1 with errno set to [EINTR] and the state of fildes is unspeci-
fied. If an I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the
file system during close(), it may return -1 with errno set to [EIO];
if this error is returned, the state of fildes is unspecified.
When all file descriptors associated with a pipe or FIFO special file
are closed, any data remaining in the pipe or FIFO shall be discarded.
When all file descriptors associated with an open file description have
been closed, the open file description shall be freed.
If the link count of the file is 0, when all file descriptors associ-
ated with the file are closed, the space occupied by the file shall be
freed and the file shall no longer be accessible.
If a STREAMS-based fildes is closed and the calling process was previ-
ously registered to receive a SIGPOLL signal for events associated with
that STREAM, the calling process shall be unregistered for events asso-
ciated with the STREAM. The last close() for a STREAM shall cause the
STREAM associated with fildes to be dismantled. If O_NONBLOCK is not
set and there have been no signals posted for the STREAM, and if there
is data on the module's write queue, close() shall wait for an unspeci-
fied time (for each module and driver) for any output to drain before
dismantling the STREAM. The time delay can be changed via an I_SET-
CLTIME ioctl() request. If the O_NONBLOCK flag is set, or if there are
any pending signals, close() shall not wait for output to drain, and
shall dismantle the STREAM immediately.
If the implementation supports STREAMS-based pipes, and fildes is asso-
ciated with one end of a pipe, the last close() shall cause a hangup to
occur on the other end of the pipe. In addition, if the other end of
the pipe has been named by fattach(), then the last close() shall force
the named end to be detached by fdetach(). If the named end has no
open file descriptors associated with it and gets detached, the STREAM
associated with that end shall also be dismantled.
If fildes refers to the master side of a pseudo-terminal, and this is
the last close, a SIGHUP signal shall be sent to the controlling
process, if any, for which the slave side of the pseudo-terminal is the
controlling terminal. It is unspecified whether closing the master side
of the pseudo-terminal flushes all queued input and output.
If fildes refers to the slave side of a STREAMS-based pseudo-terminal,
a zero-length message may be sent to the master.
When there is an outstanding cancelable asynchronous I/O operation
against fildes when close() is called, that I/O operation may be can-
celed. An I/O operation that is not canceled completes as if the
close() operation had not yet occurred. All operations that are not
canceled shall complete as if the close() blocked until the operations
completed. The close() operation itself need not block awaiting such
I/O completion. Whether any I/O operation is canceled, and which I/O
operation may be canceled upon close(), is implementation-defined.
If a memory mapped file or a shared memory object remains referenced at
the last close (that is, a process has it mapped), then the entire con-
tents of the memory object shall persist until the memory object
becomes unreferenced. If this is the last close of a memory mapped
file or a shared memory object and the close results in the memory
object becoming unreferenced, and the memory object has been unlinked,
then the memory object shall be removed.
If fildes refers to a socket, close() shall cause the socket to be
destroyed. If the socket is in connection-mode, and the SO_LINGER
option is set for the socket with non-zero linger time, and the socket
has untransmitted data, then close() shall block for up to the current
linger interval until all data is transmitted.
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, 0 shall be returned; otherwise, -1 shall be
returned and errno set to indicate the error.
ERRORS
The close() function shall fail if:
EBADF The fildes argument is not a open file descriptor.
EINTR The close() function was interrupted by a signal.
The close() function may fail if:
EIO An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file
system.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
Reassigning a File Descriptor
The following example closes the file descriptor associated with stan-
dard output for the current process, re-assigns standard output to a
new file descriptor, and closes the original file descriptor to clean
up. This example assumes that the file descriptor 0 (which is the
descriptor for standard input) is not closed.
#include <unistd.h>
...
int pfd;
...
close(1);
dup(pfd);
close(pfd);
...
Incidentally, this is exactly what could be achieved using:
dup2(pfd, 1);
close(pfd);
Closing a File Descriptor
In the following example, close() is used to close a file descriptor
after an unsuccessful attempt is made to associate that file descriptor
with a stream.
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#define LOCKFILE "/etc/ptmp"
...
int pfd;
FILE *fpfd;
...
if ((fpfd = fdopen (pfd, "w")) == NULL) {
close(pfd);
unlink(LOCKFILE);
exit(1);
}
...
APPLICATION USAGE
An application that had used the stdio routine fopen() to open a file
should use the corresponding fclose() routine rather than close().
Once a file is closed, the file descriptor no longer exists, since the
integer corresponding to it no longer refers to a file.
Implementations may use file descriptors that must be inherited into
child processes for the child process to remain conforming, such as for
message catalog or tracing purposes. Therefore, an application that
calls close() on an arbitrary integer risks non-conforming behavior,
and close() can only portably be used on file descriptor values that
the application has obtained through explicit actions, as well as the
three file descriptors corresponding to the standard file streams. In
multi-threaded parent applications, the practice of calling close() in
a loop after fork() and before an exec call in order to avoid a race
condition of leaking an unintended file descriptor into a child
process, is therefore unsafe, and the race should instead be combatted
by opening all file descriptors with the FD_CLOEXEC bit set unless the
file descriptor is intended to be inherited across exec.
RATIONALE
The use of interruptible device close routines should be discouraged to
avoid problems with the implicit closes of file descriptors by exec and
exit(). This volume of POSIX.1-2008 only intends to permit such behav-
ior by specifying the [EINTR] error condition.
Note that the requirement for close() on a socket to block for up to
the current linger interval is not conditional on the O_NONBLOCK set-
ting.
The standard developers rejected a proposal to add closefrom() to the
standard. Because the standard permits implementations to use inherited
file descriptors as a means of providing a conforming environment for
the child process, it is not possible to standardize an interface that
closes arbitrary file descriptors above a certain value while still
guaranteeing a conforming environment.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
Section 2.6, STREAMS, exec, fattach(), fclose(), fdetach(), fopen(),
ioctl(), open(), unlink()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1-2008, <unistd.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
-- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electri-
cal and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. (This is
POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the
event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and
The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard
is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online
at http://www.unix.org/online.html .
Any typographical or formatting errors that appear in this page are
most likely to have been introduced during the conversion of the source
files to man page format. To report such errors, see https://www.ker-
nel.org/doc/man-pages/reporting_bugs.html .
IEEE/The Open Group 2013 CLOSE(3P)
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