NAME    [Toc]    [Back]

     close - delete a descriptor

LIBRARY    [Toc]    [Back]

     Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS    [Toc]    [Back]

     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     close(int d);

DESCRIPTION    [Toc]    [Back]

     The close() system call deletes a descriptor from the per-process object
     reference table.  If this is the last reference to the underlying object,
     the object will be deactivated.  For example, on the last close of a file
     the current seek pointer associated with the file is lost; on the last
     close of a socket(2) associated naming information and queued data are
     discarded; on the last close of a file holding an advisory lock the lock
     is released (see flock(2)).

     When a process exits, all associated descriptors are freed, but since
     there is a limit on active descriptors per processes, the close() system
     call is useful when a large quantity of file descriptors are being handled.


     When a process calls fork(2), all descriptors for the new child process
     reference the same objects as they did in the parent before the fork().
     If a new process is then to be run using execve(2), the process would
     normally inherit these descriptors.  Most of the descriptors can be rearranged
 with dup2(2) or deleted with close() before the execve() is
     attempted, but if some of these descriptors will still be needed if the
     execve() fails, it is necessary to arrange for them to be closed only if
     the execve() succeeds.  For this reason, the system call

           fcntl(d, F_SETFD, 1);

     is provided, which arranges that a descriptor ``d'' will be closed after
     a successful execve(); the system call

           fcntl(d, F_SETFD, 0);

     restores the default, which is to not close descriptor ``d''.

RETURN VALUES    [Toc]    [Back]

     Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.  Otherwise, a value
     of -1 is returned and the global integer variable errno is set to indicate
 the error.

ERRORS    [Toc]    [Back]

     close() will fail if:

     [EBADF]            d is not an active descriptor.

     [EINTR]            An interrupt was received.

SEE ALSO    [Toc]    [Back]

     accept(2), execve(2), fcntl(2), flock(2), open(2), pipe(2), socket(2),
     socketpair(2)

STANDARDS    [Toc]    [Back]

     The close() function conforms to ISO/IEC 9945-1:1990 (``POSIX.1'').

BSD                             April 19, 1994                             BSD