closefrom(3bsd)

💖 closefrom — the manual page bestie edition 💖

okay so you found yourself on the closefrom(3bsd) page and honestly? iconic of you. this is a libbsd joint, and she's a little one, but she's important. let's get into it 🫶

✨ NAME ✨

closefrom — delete open file descriptors. yes bestie, all of them, from a certain point onwards. it's giving spring cleaning 🌸

📚 LIBRARY 📚

Utility functions from BSD systems — that's libbsd, and you link her with -lbsd. no cap.

🌈 SYNOPSIS 🌈

#include <unistd.h>
(See libbsd(7) for include usage.)

void
closefrom(int lowfd);

real talk: the include situation is a whole thing, so peep libbsd(7) for how the include usage actually works before you start typing 💅

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so the closefrom() system call does one thing and does it flawlessly: it deletes every single open file descriptor that is greater than or equal to lowfd from the per-process object reference table. all of them. gone. not me manifesting a clean fd table ✨

and here's the part you need to know, bestie — any errors encountered while closing file descriptors are ignored. she does not care. she does not stop. she does not report back. she simply closes 💀

👀 SEE ALSO 👀

• close(2) — the sibling. the original. go read her too 🎀

📜 STANDARDS 📜

closefrom() is a BSD and Solaris extension. so she's not POSIX, she's a whole vibe of her own. iykyk 🦋

🕰️ HISTORY 🕰️

the closefrom() function first appeared in:

• Solaris 9
• OpenBSD 3.5
• DragonFly 1.2
• NetBSD 3.0
• FreeBSD 8.0
• glibc 2.34

she really said "i'm gonna show up everywhere" and then did exactly that. main character energy fr fr 👑

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this one shipped out of Debian back on June 12, 2009 — a true vintage icon 🍓 close those fds and stay hydrated, ily 💜🧚