closedir(3)

closedir(3) — bestie, it's time to let go 💅

okay so you opened a directory, you had your little look around, and now?? you gotta say bye 🥺 that's literally what closedir is for. it's giving "leave the group chat cleanly." she's a <pink>Library Functions Manual</pink> girlie, living in the Standard C library (libc, -lc), and she's about to become your best friend.

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✨ NAME ✨

closedir — close a directory 🚪💖

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📚 LIBRARY 📚

Standard C library (libc, -lc).

like, that's the one you already have, no cap.

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🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <dirent.h>

int closedir(DIR *dirp);

look at her. two includes, one tiny function call. iconic behavior.

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so the closedir() function closes the directory stream that's chillin' in dirp. that's the whole job. she's focused.

but wait, there's more — a successful call to closedir() also closes the underlying file descriptor associated with dirp. yeah, she does both. multitasking queen 👑

and after this call? the directory stream descriptor dirp is not available anymore. like, gone. done. no take-backs, no second chances. do not touch it, bestie. that pointer is a ghost now 💀

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🌈 RETURN VALUE 🌈

• <green>0</green> on success — she ate and left no crumbs ✨
• <red>-1</red> on error, and errno gets set to tell you what went wrong 😭

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🎀 ERRORS 🎀

• EBADF — Invalid directory stream descriptor dirp. bestie... that's not a real directory stream. i'm not mad, i'm just disappointed 🫶

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👑 ATTRIBUTES 👑

ngl, for an explanation of the terms used in this section you should peek at attributes(7). but here's the tea:

• Interface: closedir() — Attribute: Thread safety — Value: MT-Safe

so she's <mint>MT-Safe</mint>, meaning multiple threads can vibe with her at the same time, no drama. slay.

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⭐ STANDARDS ⭐

POSIX.1-2008. certified. official. she's on the list 💜

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🧚 HISTORY 🧚

POSIX.1-2001, SVr4, 4.3BSD. she's been around, she's got lore, she's a legacy queen and we respect her for it 🕰️✨

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

• close(2)
• opendir(3)
• readdir(3)
• rewinddir(3)
• scandir(3)
• seekdir(3)
• telldir(3)

the whole directory-stream friend group fr fr 🫶

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reminder bestie: after closedir(), that dirp is toast. don't dereference it, don't pass it around, don't think about it. vibe check failed on that pointer 😭

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that's the whole page, and if you wanna cite your sources it's Linux man-pages 6.20, dated 2026-02-08 — so go forth, close your directories, and remember: cleanup is self-care 💖🌸 no cap.