projects / unix-history / blame
| Commit | Line | Data |
|---|---|---|
| 6fd5737e KM |
1 | .\" Copyright (c) 1980 Regents of the University of California. |
| 2 | .\" All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement | |
| 3 | .\" specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution. | |
| 4 | .\" | |
| 5 | .\" @(#)close.2 4.1 (Berkeley) %G% | |
| 6 | .\" | |
| 7 | .TH CLOSE 2 | |
| 8 | .UC 4 | |
| 9 | .SH NAME | |
| 10 | close \- close a file | |
| 11 | .SH SYNOPSIS | |
| 12 | .B close(fildes) | |
| 13 | .SH DESCRIPTION | |
| 14 | Given | |
| 15 | a file descriptor such as returned from an | |
| 16 | .I open, | |
| 17 | .I creat, | |
| 18 | .I dup | |
| 19 | or | |
| 20 | .IR pipe (2) | |
| 21 | call, | |
| 22 | .I close | |
| 23 | closes the associated file. | |
| 24 | A close of all files is automatic on | |
| 25 | .I exit, | |
| 26 | but since | |
| 27 | there is a limit on the number of open files per process, | |
| 28 | .I close | |
| 29 | is necessary for programs which deal with many files. | |
| 30 | .PP | |
| 31 | Files are closed upon termination of a process, and | |
| 32 | certain high-numbered file descriptors are closed by | |
| 33 | .IR exec (2), | |
| 34 | and it is possible to arrange for others to be closed | |
| 35 | (see FIOCLEX in | |
| 36 | .IR ioctl (2)). | |
| 37 | .SH "SEE ALSO" | |
| 38 | creat(2), open(2), pipe(2), exec(2), ioctl(2) | |
| 39 | .SH DIAGNOSTICS | |
| 40 | Zero is returned if a file is closed; | |
| 41 | \-1 is returned for an unknown file descriptor. | |
| 42 | .SH "ASSEMBLER (PDP-11)" | |
| 43 | (close = 6.) | |
| 44 | .br | |
| 45 | (file descriptor in r0) | |
| 46 | .br | |
| 47 | .B sys close | |
| 48 | .PP | |
| 49 | .SH BUGS | |
| 50 | A file cannot be closed while there are pages which have been | |
| 51 | .I vread | |
| 52 | but not referenced. |