close

Closes the file associated with a file descriptor.

Format

#include  <unistd.h>

int close  (int file_desc);

Argument

file_desc: A file descriptor.

Description

This function tries to write buffered data by using an implicit call to fflush. If the write fails (because the disk is full or the user's quota was exceeded, for example), close continues executing. It closes the VMS channel, deallocates any buffers, and releases the memory associated with the file descriptor (or FILE pointer). Any buffered data is lost, and the file descriptor (or FILE pointer) no longer refers to the file.

If your program needs to recover from errors when flushing buffered data, it should make an explicit call to fsync (or fflush) before calling close.

Return Values

0 Indicates that the file is properly closed.

-1 Indicates that the file descriptor is undefined or an error occurred while the file was being closed (for example, if the buffered data cannot be written out).

Example

#include <unistd.h>

int fd;
   .
   .
   .
fd = open ("student.dat", 1);
   .
   .
   .
close(fd);

Previous Page | Next Page | Table of Contents | Index