File: gawk.info,  Node: Close Files And Pipes,  Next: Nonfatal,  Prev: Special Files,  Up: Printing

5.9 Closing Input and Output Redirections
=========================================

If the same file name or the same shell command is used with 'getline'
more than once during the execution of an 'awk' program (*note
Getline::), the file is opened (or the command is executed) the first
time only.  At that time, the first record of input is read from that
file or command.  The next time the same file or command is used with
'getline', another record is read from it, and so on.

   Similarly, when a file or pipe is opened for output, 'awk' remembers
the file name or command associated with it, and subsequent writes to
the same file or command are appended to the previous writes.  The file
or pipe stays open until 'awk' exits.

   This implies that special steps are necessary in order to read the
same file again from the beginning, or to rerun a shell command (rather
than reading more output from the same command).  The 'close()' function
makes these things possible:

     close(FILENAME)

or:

     close(COMMAND)

   The argument FILENAME or COMMAND can be any expression.  Its value
must _exactly_ match the string that was used to open the file or start
the command (spaces and other "irrelevant" characters included).  For
example, if you open a pipe with this:

     "sort -r names" | getline foo

then you must close it with this:

     close("sort -r names")

   Once this function call is executed, the next 'getline' from that
file or command, or the next 'print' or 'printf' to that file or
command, reopens the file or reruns the command.  Because the expression
that you use to close a file or pipeline must exactly match the
expression used to open the file or run the command, it is good practice
to use a variable to store the file name or command.  The previous
example becomes the following:

     sortcom = "sort -r names"
     sortcom | getline foo
     ...
     close(sortcom)

This helps avoid hard-to-find typographical errors in your 'awk'
programs.  Here are some of the reasons for closing an output file:

   * To write a file and read it back later on in the same 'awk'
     program.  Close the file after writing it, then begin reading it
     with 'getline'.

   * To write numerous files, successively, in the same 'awk' program.
     If the files aren't closed, eventually 'awk' may exceed a system
     limit on the number of open files in one process.  It is best to
     close each one when the program has finished writing it.

   * To make a command finish.  When output is redirected through a
     pipe, the command reading the pipe normally continues to try to
     read input as long as the pipe is open.  Often this means the
     command cannot really do its work until the pipe is closed.  For
     example, if output is redirected to the 'mail' program, the message
     is not actually sent until the pipe is closed.

   * To run the same program a second time, with the same arguments.
     This is not the same thing as giving more input to the first run!

     For example, suppose a program pipes output to the 'mail' program.
     If it outputs several lines redirected to this pipe without closing
     it, they make a single message of several lines.  By contrast, if
     the program closes the pipe after each line of output, then each
     line makes a separate message.

   If you use more files than the system allows you to have open, 'gawk'
attempts to multiplex the available open files among your data files.
'gawk''s ability to do this depends upon the facilities of your
operating system, so it may not always work.  It is therefore both good
practice and good portability advice to always use 'close()' on your
files when you are done with them.  In fact, if you are using a lot of
pipes, it is essential that you close commands when done.  For example,
consider something like this:

     {
         ...
         command = ("grep " $1 " /some/file | my_prog -q " $3)
         while ((command | getline) > 0) {
             PROCESS OUTPUT OF command
         }
         # need close(command) here
     }

   This example creates a new pipeline based on data in _each_ record.
Without the call to 'close()' indicated in the comment, 'awk' creates
child processes to run the commands, until it eventually runs out of
file descriptors for more pipelines.

   Even though each command has finished (as indicated by the
end-of-file return status from 'getline'), the child process is not
terminated;(1) more importantly, the file descriptor for the pipe is not
closed and released until 'close()' is called or 'awk' exits.

   'close()' silently does nothing if given an argument that does not
represent a file, pipe, or coprocess that was opened with a redirection.
In such a case, it returns a negative value, indicating an error.  In
addition, 'gawk' sets 'ERRNO' to a string indicating the error.

   Note also that 'close(FILENAME)' has no "magic" effects on the
implicit loop that reads through the files named on the command line.
It is, more likely, a close of a file that was never opened with a
redirection, so 'awk' silently does nothing, except return a negative
value.

   When using the '|&' operator to communicate with a coprocess, it is
occasionally useful to be able to close one end of the two-way pipe
without closing the other.  This is done by supplying a second argument
to 'close()'.  As in any other call to 'close()', the first argument is
the name of the command or special file used to start the coprocess.
The second argument should be a string, with either of the values '"to"'
or '"from"'.  Case does not matter.  As this is an advanced feature,
discussion is delayed until *note Two-way I/O::, which describes it in
more detail and gives an example.

                    Using 'close()''s Return Value

   In many older versions of Unix 'awk', the 'close()' function is
actually a statement.  (d.c.)  It is a syntax error to try and use the
return value from 'close()':

     command = "..."
     command | getline info
     retval = close(command)  # syntax error in many Unix awks

   'gawk' treats 'close()' as a function.  The return value is -1 if the
argument names something that was never opened with a redirection, or if
there is a system problem closing the file or process.  In these cases,
'gawk' sets the predefined variable 'ERRNO' to a string describing the
problem.

   In 'gawk', starting with version 4.2, when closing a pipe or
coprocess (input or output), the return value is the exit status of the
command, as described in *note Table 5.1:
table-close-pipe-return-values.(2)  Otherwise, it is the return value
from the system's 'close()' or 'fclose()' C functions when closing input
or output files, respectively.  This value is zero if the close
succeeds, or -1 if it fails.


Situation                            Return value from 'close()'
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Normal exit of command               Command's exit status
Death by signal of command           256 + number of murderous signal
Death by signal of command with      512 + number of murderous signal
core dump
Some kind of error                   -1

Table 5.1: Return values from 'close()' of a pipe

   The POSIX standard is very vague; it says that 'close()' returns zero
on success and a nonzero value otherwise.  In general, different
implementations vary in what they report when closing pipes; thus, the
return value cannot be used portably.  (d.c.)  In POSIX mode (*note
Options::), 'gawk' just returns zero when closing a pipe.

   ---------- Footnotes ----------

   (1) The technical terminology is rather morbid.  The finished child
is called a "zombie," and cleaning up after it is referred to as
"reaping."

   (2) Prior to version 4.2, the return value from closing a pipe or
co-process was the full 16-bit exit value as defined by the 'wait()'
system call.