What is fclose in php

Viewed 14k times. PHP automatically closes file handles at script termination. In any sort of cicumstances where the script will not be immediately terminating following file IO, it's probably a good idea to close the file, however. Frank, that should have been an answer so it could be upvoted. Add a comment. Active Oldest Votes. Is that a bad thing to leave it open? What are the downsides to leaving it open? You're using more memory, and other processes may not be able to use that file.

You need to back up your claim with a citation of the php. By explicitly calling fclose and checking its return value, you have the opportunity to: Retry the operation Unroll the changes Return a failure condition to a calling function Report the problem to the user Document the problem in a log file Return a failure indication to execution environment such as a command line shell which may be crucial when used in a tool chain.

Yes, PHP normally closes the file before exiting. But you should always close it manually: 1- It's a good programming practice 2- PHP can exit unexpectedly for example, an uncaught exception.

Ortiga Ortiga 7, 5 5 gold badges 40 40 silver badges 66 66 bronze badges. I would expect an uncaught exception to still clean up file handles. Mel Mel 5, 1 1 gold badge 13 13 silver badges 12 12 bronze badges. AjayR AjayR 4, 4 4 gold badges 42 42 silver badges 74 74 bronze badges. I'm a bit confused with your pronouns here. When you say a lock is placed on it, do you mean a lock is placed on the file? If so, what does the lock have to do with using the function? What does the lock do? As long as you have different names for your pointers, then you should have no problems writing multiple files in the same program.

No, any process writing to a file gets the lock so that a different process can not write to the file. PHP Calendar Functions.

PHP Directory Functions. PHP Error. PHP Filesystem Functions. PHP Math Functions. PHP String Functions. PHP Network Functions. PHP Gmagick Functions. PHP Imagick Functions. Table of Contents. Save Article. Improve Article. Like Article. Last Updated : 26 Apr, NET Reference. CSS Examples. NET Examples. Open a file for write only. Erases the contents of the file or creates a new file if it doesn't exist. File pointer starts at the beginning of the file.

The existing data in file is preserved. File pointer starts at the end of the file. Creates a new file if the file doesn't exist.