1CLOSE(2)                   Linux Programmer's Manual                  CLOSE(2)
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NAME

6       close - close a file descriptor
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SYNOPSIS

9       #include <unistd.h>
10
11       int close(int fd);
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DESCRIPTION

14       close()  closes  a  file descriptor, so that it no longer refers to any
15       file and may be reused.  Any record locks (see fcntl(2))  held  on  the
16       file  it  was  associated  with,  and owned by the process, are removed
17       (regardless of the file descriptor that was used to obtain the lock).
18
19       If fd is the last file descriptor referring to the underlying open file
20       description  (see open(2)), the resources associated with the open file
21       description are freed; if the file descriptor was the last reference to
22       a file which has been removed using unlink(2), the file is deleted.
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RETURN VALUE

25       close()  returns  zero on success.  On error, -1 is returned, and errno
26       is set appropriately.
27

ERRORS

29       EBADF  fd isn't a valid open file descriptor.
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31       EINTR  The close() call was interrupted by a signal; see signal(7).
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33       EIO    An I/O error occurred.
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35       ENOSPC, EDQUOT
36              On NFS, these errors are not normally reported against the first
37              write  which  exceeds  the  available storage space, but instead
38              against a subsequent write(2), fsync(2), or close().
39
40       See NOTES for a discussion of why close() should not be  retried  after
41       an error.
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CONFORMING TO

44       POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, SVr4, 4.3BSD.
45

NOTES

47       A  successful  close does not guarantee that the data has been success‐
48       fully saved to disk, as the kernel  uses  the  buffer  cache  to  defer
49       writes.   Typically,  filesystems  do  not flush buffers when a file is
50       closed.  If you need to be sure that the data is physically  stored  on
51       the  underlying  disk, use fsync(2).  (It will depend on the disk hard‐
52       ware at this point.)
53
54       The close-on-exec file descriptor flag can be used  to  ensure  that  a
55       file  descriptor  is  automatically closed upon a successful execve(2);
56       see fcntl(2) for details.
57
58   Multithreaded processes and close()
59       It is probably unwise to close file descriptors while they  may  be  in
60       use by system calls in other threads in the same process.  Since a file
61       descriptor may be reused, there are some obscure race  conditions  that
62       may cause unintended side effects.
63
64       When dealing with sockets, you have to be sure that there is no recv(2)
65       still blocking on it on another thread, otherwise it might  block  for‐
66       ever,  since  no  more messages will be send via the socket. Be sure to
67       use shutdown(2) to shut down all parts the  connection  before  closing
68       the socket.
69
70       Furthermore, consider the following scenario where two threads are per‐
71       forming operations on the same file descriptor:
72
73       1. One thread is blocked in an I/O system call on the file  descriptor.
74          For  example,  it  is  trying  to write(2) to a pipe that is already
75          full, or trying to read(2) from a stream socket which currently  has
76          no available data.
77
78       2. Another thread closes the file descriptor.
79
80       The behavior in this situation varies across systems.  On some systems,
81       when the file descriptor is closed, the blocking  system  call  returns
82       immediately with an error.
83
84       On  Linux (and possibly some other systems), the behavior is different.
85       the blocking I/O system call holds a reference to the  underlying  open
86       file  description,  and this reference keeps the description open until
87       the I/O system call completes.  (See open(2) for a discussion  of  open
88       file descriptions.)  Thus, the blocking system call in the first thread
89       may successfully complete after the close() in the second thread.
90
91   Dealing with error returns from close()
92       A careful programmer will check the return value of close(),  since  it
93       is  quite  possible  that  errors  on a previous write(2) operation are
94       reported only on the final close() that releases the open file descrip‐
95       tion.   Failing  to check the return value when closing a file may lead
96       to silent loss of data.  This can especially be observed with  NFS  and
97       with disk quota.
98
99       Note, however, that a failure return should be used only for diagnostic
100       purposes (i.e., a warning to the application that there  may  still  be
101       I/O  pending  or  there  may have been failed I/O) or remedial purposes
102       (e.g., writing the file once more or creating a backup).
103
104       Retrying the close() after a failure return is the wrong thing  to  do,
105       since this may cause a reused file descriptor from another thread to be
106       closed.  This can occur because the Linux kernel  always  releases  the
107       file descriptor early in the close operation, freeing it for reuse; the
108       steps that may return an error, such as flushing data to the filesystem
109       or device, occur only later in the close operation.
110
111       Many  other  implementations similarly always close the file descriptor
112       (except in the case of EBADF, meaning  that  the  file  descriptor  was
113       invalid)  even  if  they  subsequently  report  an error on return from
114       close().  POSIX.1 is currently silent on  this  point,  but  there  are
115       plans  to  mandate this behavior in the next major release of the stan‐
116       dard.
117
118       A careful programmer who wants to know about  I/O  errors  may  precede
119       close() with a call to fsync(2).
120
121       The EINTR error is a somewhat special case.  Regarding the EINTR error,
122       POSIX.1-2008 says:
123
124              If close() is interrupted by a signal that is to be  caught,  it
125              shall  return -1 with errno set to EINTR and the state of fildes
126              is unspecified.
127
128       This permits the behavior that occurs on Linux and many other implemen‐
129       tations,  where,  as with other errors that may be reported by close(),
130       the file descriptor is guaranteed to be closed.  However, it also  per‐
131       mits  another  possibility:  that  the  implementation returns an EINTR
132       error and keeps the file descriptor open.  (According to its documenta‐
133       tion,  HP-UX's  close() does this.)  The caller must then once more use
134       close() to close the file descriptor, to avoid file  descriptor  leaks.
135       This divergence in implementation behaviors provides a difficult hurdle
136       for portable applications, since on many implementations, close()  must
137       not  be called again after an EINTR error, and on at least one, close()
138       must be called again.  There are plans to address  this  conundrum  for
139       the next major release of the POSIX.1 standard.
140

SEE ALSO

142       fcntl(2), fsync(2), open(2), shutdown(2), unlink(2), fclose(3)
143

COLOPHON

145       This  page  is  part of release 5.07 of the Linux man-pages project.  A
146       description of the project, information about reporting bugs,  and  the
147       latest     version     of     this    page,    can    be    found    at
148       https://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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152Linux                             2020-06-09                          CLOSE(2)
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