NAME

fclose - close a stream

SYNOPSIS

#include <stdio.h>

int fclose(FILE *stream);


DESCRIPTION

^[CX] The functionality described on this reference page is aligned with the ISO C standard. Any conflict between the requirements described here and the ISO C standard is unintentional. This volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001 defers to the ISO C standard.

The fclose() function shall cause the stream pointed to by stream to be flushed and the associated file to be closed. Any unwritten buffered data for the stream shall be written to the file; any unread buffered data shall be discarded. Whether or not the call succeeds, the stream shall be disassociated from the file and any buffer set by the setbuf() or setvbuf() function shall be disassociated from the stream. If the associated buffer was automatically allocated, it shall be deallocated.

^[CX] The fclose() function shall mark for update the st_ctime and st_mtime fields of the underlying file, if the stream was writable, and if buffered data remains that has not yet been written to the file. The fclose() function shall perform the equivalent of a close() on the file descriptor that is associated with the stream pointed to by stream.

After the call to fclose(), any use of stream results in undefined behavior.

RETURN VALUE

Upon successful completion, fclose() shall return 0; otherwise, it shall return EOF ^[CX]  and set errno to indicate the error.

ERRORS

The fclose() function shall fail if:

[EAGAIN]

^[CX] The O_NONBLOCK flag is set for the file descriptor underlying stream and the process would be delayed in the write operation.

[EBADF]

^[CX] The file descriptor underlying stream is not valid.

[EFBIG]

^[CX] An attempt was made to write a file that exceeds the maximum file size.

[EFBIG]

^[XSI] An attempt was made to write a file that exceeds the process' file size limit.

[EFBIG]

^[CX] The file is a regular file and an attempt was made to write at or beyond the offset maximum associated with the corresponding stream.

[EINTR]

^[CX] The fclose() function was interrupted by a signal.

[EIO]

^[CX] The process is a member of a background process group attempting to write to its controlling terminal, TOSTOP is set, the process is neither ignoring nor blocking SIGTTOU, and the process group of the process is orphaned. This error may also be returned under implementation-defined conditions.

[ENOSPC]

^[CX] There was no free space remaining on the device containing the file.

[EPIPE]

^[CX] An attempt is made to write to a pipe or FIFO that is not open for reading by any process. A SIGPIPE signal shall also be sent to the thread.

The fclose() function may fail if:

[ENXIO]

^[CX] A request was made of a nonexistent device, or the request was outside the capabilities of the device.

EXAMPLES

None.

APPLICATION USAGE

None.

RATIONALE

None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

None.

SEE ALSO

close() , fopen() , getrlimit() , ulimit() , the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001, <stdio.h>

CHANGE HISTORY

First released in Issue 1. Derived from Issue 1 of the SVID.

Issue 5

Large File Summit extensions are added.

Issue 6

Extensions beyond the ISO C standard are marked.

The following new requirements on POSIX implementations derive from alignment with the Single UNIX Specification:

• The [EFBIG] error is added as part of the large file support extensions.

• The [ENXIO] optional error condition is added.

The DESCRIPTION is updated to note that the stream and any buffer are disassociated whether or not the call succeeds. This is for alignment with the ISO/IEC 9899:1999 standard.