FCLOSE(3P)                                          POSIX Programmer's Manual                                         FCLOSE(3P)



PROLOG
       This  manual  page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual.  The Linux implementation of this interface may differ (con-
       sult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the  interface  may  not  be  implemented  on
       Linux.

NAME
       fclose - close a stream

SYNOPSIS
       #include <stdio.h>

       int fclose(FILE *stream);


DESCRIPTION
       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.

       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  and set errno to indicate the error.

ERRORS
       The fclose() function shall fail if:

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

       EBADF  The file descriptor underlying stream is not valid.

       EFBIG  An attempt was made to write a file that exceeds the maximum file size.

       EFBIG  An attempt was made to write a file that exceeds the process' file size limit.

       EFBIG  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  The fclose() function was interrupted by a signal.

       EIO    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 There was no free space remaining on the device containing the file.

       EPIPE  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  A request was made of a nonexistent device, or the request was outside the capabilities of the device.


       The following sections are informative.

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>

COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003  Edition,  Standard  for
       Information  Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copy-
       right (C) 2001-2003 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the event of any
       discrepancy  between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group
       Standard  is  the  referee   document.   The   original   Standard   can   be   obtained   online   at   http://www.open-
       group.org/unix/online.html .



IEEE/The Open Group                                           2003                                                    FCLOSE(3P)