.\" Copyright (c) 2020 Stephen Kitt <steve@sk2.org>
.\" and Copyright (c) 2021 Michael Kerrisk <mtk.manpages@gmail.com>
.\"
.\" SPDX-License-Identifier: Linux-man-pages-copyleft
.\"
.TH close_range 2 2024-07-23 "Linux man-pages 6.13"
.SH NAME
close_range \- close all file descriptors in a given range
.SH LIBRARY
Standard C library
.RI ( libc ,\~ \-lc )
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.BR "#define _GNU_SOURCE" "         /* See feature_test_macros(7) */"
.B #include <unistd.h>
.P
.BR "#include <linux/close_range.h>" " /* Definition of " CLOSE_RANGE_*
.BR "" "                                  constants */"
.P
.BI "int close_range(unsigned int " first ", unsigned int " last \
", int " flags );
.fi
.SH DESCRIPTION
The
.BR close_range ()
system call closes all open file descriptors from
.I first
to
.I last
(included).
.P
Errors closing a given file descriptor are currently ignored.
.P
.I flags
is a bit mask containing 0 or more of the following:
.TP
.BR CLOSE_RANGE_CLOEXEC " (since Linux 5.11)"
Set the close-on-exec flag on the specified file descriptors,
rather than immediately closing them.
.TP
.B CLOSE_RANGE_UNSHARE
Unshare the specified file descriptors from any other processes
before closing them,
avoiding races with other threads sharing the file descriptor table.
.SH RETURN VALUE
On success,
.BR close_range ()
returns 0.
On error, \-1 is returned and
.I errno
is set to indicate the error.
.SH ERRORS
.TP
.B EINVAL
.I flags
is not valid, or
.I first
is greater than
.IR last .
.P
The following can occur with
.B CLOSE_RANGE_UNSHARE
(when constructing the new descriptor table):
.TP
.B EMFILE
The number of open file descriptors exceeds the limit specified in
.I /proc/sys/fs/nr_open
(see
.BR proc (5)).
This error can occur in situations where that limit was lowered before
a call to
.BR close_range ()
where the
.B CLOSE_RANGE_UNSHARE
flag is specified.
.TP
.B ENOMEM
Insufficient kernel memory was available.
.SH STANDARDS
None.
.SH HISTORY
FreeBSD.
Linux 5.9,
glibc 2.34.
.SH NOTES
.SS Closing all open file descriptors
.\" 278a5fbaed89dacd04e9d052f4594ffd0e0585de
To avoid blindly closing file descriptors
in the range of possible file descriptors,
this is sometimes implemented (on Linux)
by listing open file descriptors in
.I /proc/self/fd/
and calling
.BR close (2)
on each one.
.BR close_range ()
can take care of this without requiring
.I /proc
and within a single system call,
which provides significant performance benefits.
.SS Closing file descriptors before exec
.\" 60997c3d45d9a67daf01c56d805ae4fec37e0bd8
File descriptors can be closed safely using
.P
.in +4n
.EX
/* we don't want anything past stderr here */
close_range(3, \[ti]0U, CLOSE_RANGE_UNSHARE);
execve(....);
.EE
.in
.P
.B CLOSE_RANGE_UNSHARE
is conceptually equivalent to
.P
.in +4n
.EX
unshare(CLONE_FILES);
close_range(first, last, 0);
.EE
.in
.P
but can be more efficient:
if the unshared range extends past
the current maximum number of file descriptors allocated
in the caller's file descriptor table
(the common case when
.I last
is \[ti]0U),
the kernel will unshare a new file descriptor table for the caller up to
.IR first ,
copying as few file descriptors as possible.
This avoids subsequent
.BR close (2)
calls entirely;
the whole operation is complete once the table is unshared.
.SS Closing files on \fBexec\fP
.\" 582f1fb6b721facf04848d2ca57f34468da1813e
This is particularly useful in cases where multiple
.RB pre- exec
setup steps risk conflicting with each other.
For example, setting up a
.BR seccomp (2)
profile can conflict with a
.BR close_range ()
call:
if the file descriptors are closed before the
.BR seccomp (2)
profile is set up,
the profile setup can't use them itself,
or control their closure;
if the file descriptors are closed afterwards,
the seccomp profile can't block the
.BR close_range ()
call or any fallbacks.
Using
.B CLOSE_RANGE_CLOEXEC
avoids this:
the descriptors can be marked before the
.BR seccomp (2)
profile is set up,
and the profile can control access to
.BR close_range ()
without affecting the calling process.
.SH EXAMPLES
The program shown below opens the files named in its command-line arguments,
displays the list of files that it has opened
(by iterating through the entries in
.IR /proc/PID/fd ),
uses
.BR close_range ()
to close all file descriptors greater than or equal to 3,
and then once more displays the process's list of open files.
The following example demonstrates the use of the program:
.P
.in +4n
.EX
$ \fBtouch /tmp/a /tmp/b /tmp/c\fP
$ \fB./a.out /tmp/a /tmp/b /tmp/c\fP
/tmp/a opened as FD 3
/tmp/b opened as FD 4
/tmp/c opened as FD 5
/proc/self/fd/0 ==> /dev/pts/1
/proc/self/fd/1 ==> /dev/pts/1
/proc/self/fd/2 ==> /dev/pts/1
/proc/self/fd/3 ==> /tmp/a
/proc/self/fd/4 ==> /tmp/b
/proc/self/fd/5 ==> /tmp/b
/proc/self/fd/6 ==> /proc/9005/fd
========= About to call close_range() =======
/proc/self/fd/0 ==> /dev/pts/1
/proc/self/fd/1 ==> /dev/pts/1
/proc/self/fd/2 ==> /dev/pts/1
/proc/self/fd/3 ==> /proc/9005/fd
.EE
.in
.P
Note that the lines showing the pathname
.I /proc/9005/fd
result from the calls to
.BR opendir (3).
.SS Program source
\&
.\" SRC BEGIN (close_range.c)
.EX
#define _GNU_SOURCE
#include <dirent.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <limits.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <unistd.h>
\&
/* Show the contents of the symbolic links in /proc/self/fd */
\&
static void
show_fds(void)
{
    DIR            *dirp;
    char           path[PATH_MAX], target[PATH_MAX];
    ssize_t        len;
    struct dirent  *dp;
\&
    dirp = opendir("/proc/self/fd");
    if (dirp  == NULL) {
        perror("opendir");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
\&
    for (;;) {
        dp = readdir(dirp);
        if (dp == NULL)
            break;
\&
        if (dp\->d_type == DT_LNK) {
            snprintf(path, sizeof(path), "/proc/self/fd/%s",
                     dp\->d_name);
\&
            len = readlink(path, target, sizeof(target));
            printf("%s ==> %.*s\[rs]n", path, (int) len, target);
        }
    }
\&
    closedir(dirp);
}
\&
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    int  fd;
\&
    for (size_t j = 1; j < argc; j++) {
        fd = open(argv[j], O_RDONLY);
        if (fd == \-1) {
            perror(argv[j]);
            exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
        }
        printf("%s opened as FD %d\[rs]n", argv[j], fd);
    }
\&
    show_fds();
\&
    printf("========= About to call close_range() =======\[rs]n");
\&
    if (close_range(3, \[ti]0U, 0) == \-1) {
        perror("close_range");
        exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
    }
\&
    show_fds();
    exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
}
.EE
.\" SRC END
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR close (2)
