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, Copyright (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.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .