close(2) [bsd man page]

CLOSE(2)							System Calls Manual							  CLOSE(2)

NAME

       close - delete a descriptor

SYNOPSIS

       close(d)
       int d;

DESCRIPTION

       The  close  call deletes a descriptor from the per-process object reference table.  If this is the last reference to the underlying object,
       then it 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 further flock(2)).

       A close of all of a process's descriptors is automatic on exit, but since there is a limit on the number of active descriptors per process,
       close is necessary for programs that deal with many descriptors.

       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 is then to be run using execve(2), the process would normally inherit these descriptors.  Most of the  descrip-
       tors  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 if the execve succeeds.  For this reason, the call	``fcntl(d,
       F_SETFD,  1)''  is  provided,  which arranges that a descriptor will be closed after a successful execve; the call ``fcntl(d, F_SETFD, 0)''
       restores the default, which is to not close the descriptor.

RETURN VALUE

       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

       Close will fail if:

       [EBADF]	      D is not an active descriptor.

SEE ALSO

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

4th Berkeley Distribution					   May 22, 1986 							  CLOSE(2)

Check Out this Related Man Page

DUP(2)							      BSD System Calls Manual							    DUP(2)

NAME

     dup, dup2 -- duplicate an existing file descriptor

SYNOPSIS

     #include <unistd.h>

     int
     dup(int oldd);

     int
     dup2(int oldd, int newd);

DESCRIPTION

     Dup() duplicates an existing object descriptor and returns its value to the calling process (newd = dup(oldd)).  The argument oldd is a small
     non-negative integer index in the per-process descriptor table.  The value must be less than the size of the table, which is returned by
     getdtablesize(2).	The new descriptor returned by the call is the lowest numbered descriptor currently not in use by the process.

     The object referenced by the descriptor does not distinguish between oldd and newd in any way.  Thus if newd and oldd are duplicate refer-
     ences to an open file, read(2), write(2) and lseek(2) calls all move a single pointer into the file, and append mode, non-blocking I/O and
     asynchronous I/O options are shared between the references.  If a separate pointer into the file is desired, a different object reference to
     the file must be obtained by issuing an additional open(2) call.  The close-on-exec flag on the new file descriptor is unset.

     In dup2(), the value of the new descriptor newd is specified.  If this descriptor is already in use, the descriptor is first deallocated as
     if a close(2) call had been done first.

RETURN VALUES

     The value -1 is returned if an error occurs in either call.  The external variable errno indicates the cause of the error.

ERRORS

     Dup() and dup2() fail if:

     [EBADF]		Oldd or newd is not a valid active descriptor

     [EMFILE]		Too many descriptors are active.

SEE ALSO

     accept(2), open(2), close(2), fcntl(2), pipe(2), socket(2), socketpair(2), getdtablesize(2)

STANDARDS

     Dup() and dup2() are expected to conform to IEEE Std 1003.1-1988 (``POSIX.1'').

4th Berkeley Distribution					   June 4, 1993 					 4th Berkeley Distribution

Linux and UNIX Man Pages

close(2) [bsd man page]

Check Out this Related Man Page