'\"
'\" Copyright (c) 1993 The Regents of the University of California.
'\" Copyright (c) 1994-1996 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
'\"
'\" See the file "license.terms" for information on usage and redistribution
'\" of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
'\" 
'\" RCS: @(#) $Id: close.n,v 1.1.1.1 2007/07/10 15:04:23 duncan Exp $
'\" 
.so man.macros
.TH close n 7.5 Tcl "Tcl Built-In Commands"
.BS
'\" Note:  do not modify the .SH NAME line immediately below!
.SH NAME
close \- Close an open channel.
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBclose \fIchannelId\fR
.BE

.SH DESCRIPTION
.PP
Closes the channel given by \fIchannelId\fR.
.PP
.VS
\fIChannelId\fR must be an identifier for an open channel such as a
Tcl standard channel (\fBstdin\fR, \fBstdout\fR, or \fBstderr\fR),
the return value from an invocation of \fBopen\fR or \fBsocket\fR, or
the result of a channel creation command provided by a Tcl extension.
.VE
.PP
All buffered output is flushed to the channel's output device,
any buffered input is discarded, the underlying file or device is closed,
and \fIchannelId\fR becomes unavailable for use.
.VS "" br
.PP
If the channel is blocking, the command does not return until all output
is flushed.
If the channel is nonblocking and there is unflushed output, the
channel remains open and the command
returns immediately; output will be flushed in the background and the
channel will be closed when all the flushing is complete.
.VE
.PP
If \fIchannelId\fR is a blocking channel for a command pipeline then
\fBclose\fR waits for the child processes to complete.
.VS "" br
.PP
If the channel is shared between interpreters, then \fBclose\fR
makes \fIchannelId\fR unavailable in the invoking interpreter but has no
other effect until all of the sharing interpreters have closed the
channel.
When the last interpreter in which the channel is registered invokes
\fBclose\fR, the cleanup actions described above occur. See the
\fBinterp\fR command for a description of channel sharing.
.PP
Channels are automatically closed when an interpreter is destroyed and
when the process exits.  Channels are switched to blocking mode, to ensure
that all output is correctly flushed before the process exits.
.VE
.PP
The command returns an empty string, and may generate an error if
an error occurs while flushing output.  If a command in a command
pipeline created with \fBopen\fR returns an error, \fBclose\fR
generates an error (similar to the \fBexec\fR command.)
.SH EXAMPLE
This illustrates how you can use Tcl to ensure that files get closed
even when errors happen by combining \fBcatch\fR, \fBclose\fR and
\fBreturn\fR:
.CS
proc withOpenFile {filename channelVar script} {
    upvar 1 $channelVar chan
    set chan [open $filename]
    catch {
        uplevel 1 $script
    } result options
    \fBclose\fR $chan
    return -options $options $result
}
.CE

.SH "SEE ALSO"
file(n), open(n), socket(n), eof(n), Tcl_StandardChannels(3)

.SH KEYWORDS
blocking, channel, close, nonblocking