close(2)                                                           close(2)




 NAME
      close - close a file descriptor

 SYNOPSIS
      #include <unistd.h>

      int close(int fildes);

 DESCRIPTION
      close() closes the file descriptor indicated by fildes.  fildes is a
      file descriptor obtained from a creat(), open(), dup(), fcntl(), or
      pipe() system call.  All associated file segments which have been
      locked by this process with the lockf() function are released (i.e.,
      unlocked).

 RETURN VALUE
      Upon successful completion, close() returns a value of 0; otherwise,
      it returns -1 and sets errno to indicate the error.

 ERRORS
      close() fails if the any of following conditions are encountered:

           [EBADF]        fildes is not a valid open file descriptor.

           [EINTR]        An attempt to close a slow device or connection
                          was interrupted by a signal.  The file descriptor
                          still points to an open device or connection.

           [ENOSPC]       Not enough space on the file system.  This error
                          can occur when closing a file on an NFS file
                          system.  [When a write() system call is executed
                          on a local file system and if a new buffer needs
                          to be allocated to hold the data, the buffer is
                          mapped onto the disk at that time.  A full disk is
                          detected at this time and write() returns an
                          error.  When the write() system call is executed
                          on an NFS file system, the new buffer is allocated
                          without communicating with the NFS server to see
                          if there is space for the buffer (to improve NFS
                          performance).  It is only when the buffer is
                          written to the server (at file close or the buffer
                          is full) that the disk-full condition is
                          detected.]

 SEE ALSO
      creat(2), dup(2), exec(2), fcntl(2), lockf(2), open(2), pipe(2).

 STANDARDS CONFORMANCE
      close(): AES, SVID2, SVID3, XPG2, XPG3, XPG4, FIPS 151-2, POSIX.1





 Hewlett-Packard Company            - 1 -    HP-UX Release 10.20:  July 1996