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

    NAME
           close - close a file descriptor

    SYNOPSIS
           #include <unistd.h>

           int close(int fd);

    DESCRIPTION
           close  closes  a  file  descriptor,  so  that it no longer
           refers to any file and may be reused.

           If fd is the last copy of a particular file descriptor the
           resources  associated  with  it are freed; for example any
           locks held are removed and if the descriptor was the  last
           reference  to  a  file which has been removed using unlink
           the file is deleted.

    RETURN VALUE
           close returns zero on success, or -1 if an error occurred.

    ERRORS
           EBADF  fd isn't a valid open file descriptor.

    CONFORMING TO
           SVID, AT&T, POSIX, X/OPEN, BSD 4.3

    NOTES
           Not  checking  the  return  value of close is a common but
           nevertheless  serious  programming  error.   File   system
           implementations  which  use techniques as ``write-behind''
           to increase performance may lead to  write(2)  succeeding,
           although  the  data  has  not been written yet.  The error
           status may be reported at a later write operation, but  it
           is  guaranteed  to  be  reported on closing the file.  Not
           checking the return value when closing the file  may  lead
           to  silent  loss of data.  This can especially be observed
           with NFS and disk quotas.

### SEE ALSO

open, fcntl, shutdown, unlink,

                            February 18, 1995                       1

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