NAME

pclose −  Closes a pipe to a process

LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc.so, libc.a)

SYNOPSIS

#include <stdio.h>

int pclose (
        FILE ∗stream );

STANDARDS

Interfaces documented on this reference page conform to industry standards as follows:

pclose():  XPG4, XPG4−UNIX

Refer to the standards(5) reference page for more information about industry standards and associated tags. 

PARAMETERS

streamPoints to a FILE structure for an open pipe returned by a previous call to the popen() function. 

DESCRIPTION

The pclose() function closes a pipe between the calling program and a shell command to be executed. Use the pclose() function to close any stream you have opened with the popen() function. The pclose() function waits for the associated process to end, and then returns the exit status of the command.  If the original processes and the process started with the popen() function concurrently read or write a common file, neither should use buffered I/O. If they do, the results are unpredictable. 

RETURN VALUES

Upon successful completion, the pclose() function returns the exit status of the command. 

If an error is detected, pclose() sets errno to an appropriate value and returns a value of -1. 

ERRORS

If the pclose() function fails, errno may be set to the following value:

[ECHILD]The status of the child process could not be obtained. 

RELATED INFORMATION

Functions: fclose(3), popen(3), wait(2)

Standards: standards(5)