Opening and Closing Files (The GNU C Library)

### 13.1 Opening and Closing Files ¶

This section describes the primitives for opening and closing files using file descriptors. The `open` and `creat` functions are declared in the header file `fcntl.h`, while `close` is declared in `unistd.h`.

Function: `int` open `(const char *filename, int flags[, mode_t mode])` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe fd | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  The `open` function creates and returns a new file descriptor for the file named by filename. Initially, the file position indicator for the file is at the beginning of the file. The argument mode (see The Mode Bits for Access Permission) is used only when a file is created, but it doesn’t hurt to supply the argument in any case.

  The flags argument controls how the file is to be opened. This is a bit mask; you create the value by the bitwise OR of the appropriate parameters (using the ‘`|`’ operator in C). See File Status Flags, for the parameters available.

  The normal return value from `open` is a non-negative integer file descriptor. In the case of an error, a value of -1 is returned instead. In addition to the usual file name errors (see File Name Errors), the following `errno` error conditions are defined for this function:

  `EACCES`

    The file exists but is not readable/writable as requested by the flags argument, or the file does not exist and the directory is unwritable so it cannot be created.

  `EEXIST`

    Both `O_CREAT` and `O_EXCL` are set, and the named file already exists.

  `EINTR`

    The `open` operation was interrupted by a signal. See Primitives Interrupted by Signals.

  `EISDIR`

    The flags argument specified write access, and the file is a directory.

  `EMFILE`

    The process has too many files open. The maximum number of file descriptors is controlled by the `RLIMIT_NOFILE` resource limit; see Limiting Resource Usage.

  `ENFILE`

    The entire system, or perhaps the file system which contains the directory, cannot support any additional open files at the moment. (This problem cannot happen on GNU/Hurd systems.)

  `ENOENT`

    The named file does not exist, and `O_CREAT` is not specified.

  `ENOSPC`

    The directory or file system that would contain the new file cannot be extended, because there is no disk space left.

  `ENXIO`

    `O_NONBLOCK` and `O_WRONLY` are both set in the flags argument, the file named by filename is a FIFO (see Pipes and FIFOs), and no process has the file open for reading.

  `EROFS`

    The file resides on a read-only file system and any of `O_WRONLY`, `O_RDWR`, and `O_TRUNC` are set in the flags argument, or `O_CREAT` is set and the file does not already exist.

  If on a 32 bit machine the sources are translated with `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS == 64` the function `open` returns a file descriptor opened in the large file mode which enables the file handling functions to use files up to 2^63 bytes in size and offset from −2^63 to 2^63. This happens transparently for the user since all of the low-level file handling functions are equally replaced.

  This function is a cancellation point in multi-threaded programs. This is a problem if the thread allocates some resources (like memory, file descriptors, semaphores or whatever) at the time `open` is called. If the thread gets canceled these resources stay allocated until the program ends. To avoid this calls to `open` should be protected using cancellation handlers.

  The `open` function is the underlying primitive for the `fopen` and `freopen` functions, that create streams.

Function: `int` open64 `(const char *filename, int flags[, mode_t mode])` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe fd | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  This function is similar to `open`. It returns a file descriptor which can be used to access the file named by filename. The only difference is that on 32 bit systems the file is opened in the large file mode. I.e., file length and file offsets can exceed 31 bits.

  When the sources are translated with `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS == 64` this function is actually available under the name `open`. I.e., the new, extended API using 64 bit file sizes and offsets transparently replaces the old API.

Function: `int` openat `(int filedes, const char *filename, int flags[, mode_t mode])` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe fd | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  This function is the descriptor-relative variant of the `open` function. See Descriptor-Relative Access.

  Note that the flags argument of `openat` does not accept `AT_…` flags, only the flags described for the `open` function above.

  The `openat` function can fail for additional reasons:

  `EBADF`

    The filedes argument is not a valid file descriptor.

  `ENOTDIR`

    The descriptor filedes is not associated with a directory, and filename is a relative file name.

  When the sources are compiled with `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS == 64` this function is in fact `openat64` since the LFS interface transparently replaces the normal implementation.

Function: `int` openat64 `(int filedes, const char *filename, int flags[, mode_t mode])` ¶

  The large-file variant of the `openat`, similar to how `open64` is the large-file variant of `open`.

  When the sources are translated with `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS == 64` this function is actually available under the name `openat`. I.e., the new, extended API using 64 bit file sizes and offsets transparently replaces the old API.

Data Type: struct open_how ¶

  The `open_how` structure describes how to open a file using `openat2`.

  Portability note: In the future, additional fields can be added to `struct open_how`, so that the size of this data type increases. Do not use it in places where this matters, such as structure fields in installed header files, where such a change could affect the application binary interface (ABI).

  The following generic fields are available.

  `flags`

    This field specifies the file creation and file status flags to use when opening the file. All of the `O_*` flags defined for `openat` are valid. The `openat2` is stricter than `openat` in rejecting unknown or conflicting values. For example, `openat2` rejects a mode that exceeds 07777, whereas `openat` silently ignores excess high-order bits.

  `mode`

    This field specifies the mode for the new file, similar to `mode` argument of `openat`. It should be in the range 0..07777.

  `resolve`

    This is a bitmask of flags that affect the resolution of file name components. Unlike `O_NOFOLLOW`, it affects all file name components, not just the last one. The following flags are available.

    `RESOLVE_NO_XDEV`

      Disallow traversal of mount points during path resolution (including all bind mounts).

    `RESOLVE_NO_MAGICLINKS`

      Disallow all magic-link resolution during path resolution. Magic links are symbolic link-like objects that are found in procfs; for example the `/proc/pid/exe`.

    `RESOLVE_NO_SYMLINKS`

      Disallow resolution of symbolic links during path resolution. This option implies `RESOLVE_NO_MAGICLINKS`.

    `RESOLVE_BENEATH`

      This rejects absolute pathnames, pathnames containing `..` components that would be resolved relative to dfd, and symbolic links that resolve to pathnames that would be rejected. The rejection occurs even if dfd is the root directory.

    `RESOLVE_IN_ROOT`

      Treat absolute pathnames as being relative to dfd, treat a `..` component as being equivalent to `.` if it is resolved relative to dfd, and treat symbolic link contents consistently with this.

Function: `int` openat2 `(int dirfd, const char *pathname, const struct open_how *how, size_t size)` ¶

  | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  This function is an extension of the `openat` and provides a superset of its functionality. See Descriptor-Relative Access.

  The size argument must equal `sizeof *how`. For portability to future API versions that may extend `struct open_how`, `*how` should be fully initialized e.g., by a struct initializer, by `memset` to zero, or by having static storage duration.

  On failure, `openat2` returns -1 and sets `errno`. It can fail for any of the reasons `openat` fails, plus the following reasons:

  `E2BIG`

    size is too large for any future extension, `*how` contains non-zero members that are future extensions not supported by this kernel

  `EINVAL`

    An unknown flag or invalid value was used on `*how`; or `how->mode` is non-zero, but `how->flags` does not contain `O_CREAT` or `O_TMPFILE`, or size is smaller than the ones supported by the kernel.

  It can also return all the errors `openat` returns.

  Similar to `openat`, `openat2` is a cancellation point.

  Unlike other `open`-like functions, this function ignores `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS` and always operates in large file mode.

Obsolete function: `int` creat `(const char *filename, mode_t mode)` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe fd | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  This function is obsolete. The call:

      creat (filename, mode)

  is equivalent to:

      open (filename, O_WRONLY | O_CREAT | O_TRUNC, mode)

  If on a 32 bit machine the sources are translated with `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS == 64` the function `creat` returns a file descriptor opened in the large file mode which enables the file handling functions to use files up to 2^63 in size and offset from −2^63 to 2^63. This happens transparently for the user since all of the low-level file handling functions are equally replaced.

Obsolete function: `int` creat64 `(const char *filename, mode_t mode)` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe fd | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  This function is similar to `creat`. It returns a file descriptor which can be used to access the file named by filename. The only difference is that on 32 bit systems the file is opened in the large file mode. I.e., file length and file offsets can exceed 31 bits.

  To use this file descriptor one must not use the normal operations but instead the counterparts named `*64`, e.g., `read64`.

  When the sources are translated with `_FILE_OFFSET_BITS == 64` this function is actually available under the name `open`. I.e., the new, extended API using 64 bit file sizes and offsets transparently replaces the old API.

Function: `int` close `(int filedes)` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe fd | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  The function `close` closes the file descriptor filedes. Closing a file has the following consequences:

  - The file descriptor is deallocated.
  - Any record locks owned by the process on the file are unlocked.
  - When all file descriptors associated with a pipe or FIFO have been closed, any unread data is discarded.

  This function is a cancellation point in multi-threaded programs. This is a problem if the thread allocates some resources (like memory, file descriptors, semaphores or whatever) at the time `close` is called. If the thread gets canceled these resources stay allocated until the program ends. To avoid this, calls to `close` should be protected using cancellation handlers.

  The normal return value from `close` is 0; a value of -1 is returned in case of failure. The following `errno` error conditions are defined for this function:

  `EBADF`

    The filedes argument is not a valid file descriptor.

  `EINTR`

    The `close` call was interrupted by a signal. See Primitives Interrupted by Signals. Here is an example of how to handle `EINTR` properly:

        TEMP_FAILURE_RETRY (close (desc));

  `ENOSPC`
  `EIO`
  `EDQUOT`

    When the file is accessed by NFS, these errors from `write` can sometimes not be detected until `close`. See Input and Output Primitives, for details on their meaning.

  Please note that there is no separate `close64` function. This is not necessary since this function does not determine nor depend on the mode of the file. The kernel which performs the `close` operation knows which mode the descriptor is used for and can handle this situation.

To close a stream, call `fclose` (see Closing Streams) instead of trying to close its underlying file descriptor with `close`. This flushes any buffered output and updates the stream object to indicate that it is closed.

Function: `int` close_range `(unsigned int lowfd, unsigned int maxfd, int flags)` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe fd | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  The function `close_range` closes the file descriptor from lowfd to maxfd (inclusive). This function is similar to call `close` in specified file descriptor range depending on the flags.

  This is function is only supported on recent Linux versions and the GNU C Library does not provide any fallback (the application will need to handle possible `ENOSYS`).

  The flags add options on how the files are closes. Linux currently supports:

  `CLOSE_RANGE_UNSHARE` ¶

    Unshare the file descriptor table before closing file descriptors.

  `CLOSE_RANGE_CLOEXEC` ¶

    Set the `FD_CLOEXEC` bit instead of closing the file descriptor.

  The normal return value from `close_range` is 0; a value of -1 is returned in case of failure. The following `errno` error conditions are defined for this function:

  `EINVAL`

    The lowfd value is larger than maxfd or an unsupported flags is used.

  `ENOMEM`

    Either there is not enough memory for the operation, or the process is out of address space. It can only happen when `CLOSE_RANGE_UNSHARED` flag is used.

  `EMFILE`

    The process has too many files open and it can only happens when `CLOSE_RANGE_UNSHARED` flag is used. The maximum number of file descriptors is controlled by the `RLIMIT_NOFILE` resource limit; see Limiting Resource Usage.

  `ENOSYS`

    The kernel does not implement the required functionality.

Function: `void` closefrom `(int lowfd)` ¶

  Preliminary: | MT-Safe | AS-Safe | AC-Safe fd | See POSIX Safety Concepts.

  The function `closefrom` closes all file descriptors greater than or equal to lowfd. This function is similar to calling `close` for all open file descriptors not less than lowfd.

  Already closed file descriptors are ignored.