sem_close(3)

sem_close3

Close a named semaphore

Usage

#include <semaphore.h>

int sem_close(sem_t *sem);

Library

POSIX threads library (libpthread, -lpthread)

Overview

sem_close() closes the named semaphore referred to by sem, allowing any resources that the system has allocated to the calling process for this semaphore to be freed.

Return value

On success sem_close() returns 0; on error, -1 is returned, with errno set to indicate the error.

Errors

EINVAL

sem is not a valid semaphore.

Attributes

For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

InterfaceAttributeValue
sem_close()Thread safetyMT-Safe

Notes

All open named semaphores are automatically closed on process termination, or upon execve(2).

Releases

11 releases since Debian 4.0 (Etch); the text changed 10 times.

  1. 4.0
  2. 5.0
  3. 6.0
  4. 7
  5. 8
  6. 9
  7. 10
  8. 11
  9. 12
  10. 13
  11. Arch

Standards

POSIX.1-2008.

History

POSIX.1-2001.

From man-pages 6.19-1 in Arch Linux 2026-11-01. Parsed by carta from the page's man source.