CLOSE(2)                  OpenBSD Programmer's Manual                 CLOSE(2)

NAME
     close - delete a descriptor

SYNOPSIS
     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     close(int d);

DESCRIPTION
     The close() call deletes a descriptor from the per-process object refer-
     ence 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; and on the last close of a file holding an advisory lock, the
     lock is released (see flock(2)).  However, the semantics of System V and
     IEEE Std 1003.1-1988 (``POSIX'') dictate that all fcntl(2) advisory
     record locks associated with a file for a given process are removed when
     any file descriptor for that file is closed by that process.

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

     When a process forks (see 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 image is to then be run using execve(2), the pro-
     cess would normally inherit these descriptors.  Most of the descriptors
     can be rearranged with dup2(2) or deleted with close() before the
     execve(2) is attempted, but since some of these descriptors may still be
     needed should the execve(2) fail, it is necessary to arrange for them to
     be closed when the execve(2) succeeds.  For this reason, the call
     fcntl(d, F_SETFD, FD_CLOEXEC) is provided, which arranges that a descrip-
     tor will be closed after a successful execve(2); the call fcntl(d,
     F_SETFD, 0) restores the default, which is to not close the descriptor.

RETURN VALUES
     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 indi-
     cate the error.

ERRORS
     close() will fail if:

     [EBADF]       d is not an active descriptor.

     [EINTR]       An interrupt was received.

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

STANDARDS
     close() conforms to IEEE Std 1003.1-1988 (``POSIX'').

OpenBSD 4.1                     April 19, 1994                               1
