.TH CLOSE 2 
.UC
.SH NAME
close  \-  close a file
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B close(fildes)
.PP
.SH DESCRIPTION
Given
a file descriptor such as returned from an
.I open,
.I creat,
.I dup
or
.IR pipe (2)
call,
.I close
closes the associated file.
A close of all files is automatic on
.I exit,
but since
there is a limit on the number of open files per process,
.I close
is necessary for programs which deal with many files.
.PP
Files are closed upon termination of a process, and
certain file descriptors may be closed by
.IR execve (2)
(see
.IR ioctl (2)).
.SH RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.  Otherwise, a
value of \-1 is returned and
.I errno
is set to indicate the error.
.SH ERRORS
.I Close
will fail if:
.TP 20
[EBADF]
.I Fildes
is not an active descriptor.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
creat(2), execve(2), ioctl(2), open(2), pipe(2)
.SH ASSEMBLER
(close = 6.)
.br
(file descriptor in r0)
.br
.B sys close