xref: /illumos-gate/usr/src/man/man2/close.2 (revision bbf215553c7233fbab8a0afdf1fac74c44781867)
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48.Dd February 5, 2022
49.Dt CLOSE 2
50.Os
51.Sh NAME
52.Nm close
53.Nd close a file descriptor
54.Sh SYNOPSIS
55.In unistd.h
56.Ft int
57.Fo close
58.Fa "int fildes"
59.Fc
60.Sh DESCRIPTION
61The
62.Fn close
63function deallocates the file descriptor indicated by
64.Fa fildes .
65To deallocate means to make the file descriptor available for return by
66subsequent calls to
67.Xr open 2
68or other functions that allocate file descriptors.
69All outstanding record locks owned by the process on the file associated with
70the file descriptor will be removed
71.Pq "that is, unlocked" .
72.Pp
73If
74.Fn close
75is interrupted by a signal that is to be caught, it will return
76.Sy -1
77with
78.Va errno
79set to
80.Er EINTR
81and the state of
82.Fa fildes
83is unspecified.
84If an I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system during
85.Fn close ,
86it returns
87.Sy -1 ,
88sets
89.Va errno
90to
91.Er EIO ,
92and the state of
93.Fa fildes
94is unspecified.
95.Pp
96When all file descriptors associated with a pipe or FIFO special file are
97closed, any data remaining in the pipe or FIFO will be discarded.
98.Pp
99When all file descriptors associated with an open file description have been
100closed the open file description will be freed.
101.Pp
102If the link count of the file is
103.Sy 0 ,
104when all file descriptors associated with the file are closed, the space
105occupied by the file will be freed and the file will no longer be accessible.
106.Pp
107If a streams-based
108.Po
109see
110.Xr Intro 2
111.Pc
112.Fa fildes
113is closed and the calling process was previously registered to receive a
114.Dv SIGPOLL
115signal
116.Po
117see
118.Xr signal 3C
119.Pc
120for events associated with that stream
121.Po
122see
123.Dv I_SETSIG
124in
125.Xr streamio 4I
126.Pc ,
127the calling process will be unregistered for events associated with the stream.
128The last
129.Fn close
130for a stream causes the stream associated with
131.Fa fildes
132to be dismantled.
133If
134.Dv O_NONBLOCK
135and
136.Dv O_NDELAY
137are not set and there have been no signals posted for the stream, and if there
138is data on the module's write queue,
139.Fn close
140waits up to 15 seconds
141.Pq for each module and driver
142for any output to drain
143before dismantling the stream.
144The time delay can be changed via an
145.Dv I_SETCLTIME
146.Xr ioctl 2
147request
148.Po
149see
150.Xr streamio 4I
151.Pc .
152If the
153.Dv O_NONBLOCK
154or
155.Dv O_NDELAY
156flag is set, or if there are any pending signals,
157.Fn close
158does not wait for output to drain, and dismantles the stream immediately.
159.Pp
160If
161.Fa fildes
162is associated with one end of a pipe, the last
163.Fn close
164causes a hangup to occur on the other end of the pipe.
165In addition, if the other end of the pipe has been named by
166.Xr fattach 3C ,
167then the last
168.Fn close
169forces the named end to be detached by
170.Xr fdetach 3C .
171If the named end has no open file descriptors associated with it and gets
172detached, the stream associated with that end is also dismantled.
173.Pp
174If
175.Fa fildes
176refers to the manager side of a pseudo-terminal, a
177.Dv SIGHUP
178signal is sent to the session leader, if any, for which the subsidiary side of
179the pseudo-terminal is the controlling terminal.
180It is unspecified whether closing the manager side of the pseudo-terminal
181flushes all queued input and output.
182.Pp
183If
184.Fa fildes
185refers to the subsidiary side of a streams-based pseudo-terminal, a zero-length
186message may be sent to the manager.
187.Pp
188When there is an outstanding cancelable asynchronous I/O operation against
189.Fa fildes
190when
191.Fn close
192is called, that I/O operation is canceled.
193An I/O operation that is not canceled completes as if the
194.Fn close
195operation had not yet occurred.
196All operations that are not canceled will complete as if the
197.Fn close
198blocked until the operations completed.
199.Pp
200If a shared memory object or a memory mapped file remains referenced at the
201last close
202.Pq "that is, a process has it mapped" ,
203then the entire contents of the memory object will persist until the memory
204object becomes unreferenced.
205If this is the last close of a shared memory object or a memory mapped file and
206the close results in the memory object becoming unreferenced, and the memory
207object has been unlinked, then the memory object will be removed.
208.Pp
209If
210.Fa fildes
211refers to a socket,
212.Fn close
213causes the socket to be destroyed.
214If the socket is connection-mode, and the
215.Dv SO_LINGER
216option is set for the socket with non-zero linger time, and the socket has
217untransmitted data, then
218.Fn close
219will block for up to the current linger interval until all data is transmitted.
220.Sh RETURN VALUES
221.Rv -std close
222.Sh EXAMPLES
223.Sy Example 1
224Reassign a file descriptor.
225.Pp
226The following example closes the file descriptor associated with standard
227output for the current process, re-assigns standard output to a new file
228descriptor, and closes the original file descriptor to clean up.
229This example assumes that the file descriptor
230.Sy 0 ,
231which is the descriptor for standard input, is not closed.
232.Bd -literal -offset Ds
233#include <unistd.h>
234\&...
235int pfd;
236\&...
237close(1);
238dup(pfd);
239close(pfd);
240\&...
241.Ed
242.Pp
243Incidentally, this is exactly what could be achieved using:
244.Bd -literal -offset Ds
245dup2(pfd, 1);
246close(pfd);
247.Ed
248.Pp
249.Sy Example 2
250Close a file descriptor.
251.Pp
252In the following example,
253.Fn close
254is used to close a file descriptor after an unsuccessful attempt is made to
255associate that file descriptor with a stream.
256.Bd -literal -offset Ds
257#include <stdio.h>
258#include <unistd.h>
259#include <stdlib.h>
260
261#define LOCKFILE "/etc/ptmp"
262\&...
263int pfd;
264FILE *fpfd;
265\&...
266if ((fpfd = fdopen (pfd, "w")) == NULL) {
267        close(pfd);
268        unlink(LOCKFILE);
269        exit(1);
270}
271\&...
272.Ed
273.Sh ERRORS
274The
275.Fn close
276function will fail if:
277.Bl -tag -width Er
278.It Er EBADF
279The
280.Fa fildes
281argument is not a valid file descriptor.
282.It Er EINTR
283The
284.Fn close
285function was interrupted by a signal.
286.It Er ENOLINK
287The
288.Fa fildes
289argument is on a remote machine and the link to that machine is no longer
290active.
291.It Er ENOSPC
292There was no free space remaining on the device containing the file.
293.El
294.Pp
295The
296.Fn close
297function may fail if:
298.Bl -tag -width Er
299.It Er EIO
300An I/O error occurred while reading from or writing to the file system.
301.El
302.Sh USAGE
303An application that used the
304.Xr stdio 3C
305function
306.Xr fopen 3C
307to open a file should use the corresponding
308.Xr fclose 3C
309function rather than
310.Fn close .
311.Sh INTERFACE STABILITY
312.Sy Committed
313.Sh MT-LEVEL
314.Sy Async-Signal-Safe
315.Sh SEE ALSO
316.Xr creat 2 ,
317.Xr dup 2 ,
318.Xr exec 2 ,
319.Xr fcntl 2 ,
320.Xr Intro 2 ,
321.Xr ioctl 2 ,
322.Xr open 2 ,
323.Xr pipe 2 ,
324.Xr fattach 3C ,
325.Xr fclose 3C ,
326.Xr fdetach 3C ,
327.Xr fopen 3C ,
328.Xr signal 3C ,
329.Xr signal.h 3HEAD ,
330.Xr streamio 4I ,
331.Xr attributes 7 ,
332.Xr standards 7
333