HP 3000 Manuals HP 3000 Manuals
fclose
Closes an open file.
Syntax
#include <stdio.h>
int fclose (FILE *stream);
Parameters
stream A pointer to the file to be closed.
Return Values
0 The file is successfully closed.
!=0 An error occurred. The file is not closed.
Description
The fclose function flushes the buffer associated with the specified
stream, and, if the buffer was allocated automatically by the standard
I/O system, frees the space allocated to that buffer. The stream is then
closed, breaking the connection between your file pointer and the stream.
The fclose function closes files opened by the fopen(), fdopen(), or
freopen() functions.
The fclose function takes a pointer to FILE as its argument (returned
from a call to fopen(), fdopen(), or freopen()). The function posts any
information written to the file that is still in the stream's buffer, and
it then closes the file. This disassociates the file and the stream. If
the buffer was automatically allocated, it is deallocated.
There are two reasons why you can open a file, but might never explicitly
close the file. First, notice that all programs in this chapter that
open files end with a call to exit(). The exit() call automatically
performs an fclose() operation for every open file in that program.
Second, when a C program is
compiled, an exit() call is normally
compiled with your code, so that if you return from main() or reach the }
that terminates main(), it is equivalent to calling exit().
See Also
exit(), fdopen(), fopen(), freopen(), setbuf(), ANSI C 4.9.5.1, POSIX.1
8.1