Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!purdue!gatech!mcnc!rti!trt
From: trt@rti.UUCP (Thomas Truscott)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: Re: Minix stdio - 2 of 7
Summary: In _cleanup(), change "fclose" to "fflush"
Keywords: stdio
Message-ID: <3169@rti.UUCP>
Date: 6 Sep 89 18:15:02 GMT
References: <1494@bruce.OZ>
Organization: Research Triangle Institute, RTP, NC
Lines: 37


From postnews Wed Sep  6 14:07:22 1989
> X * Cleanly close and flush all output buffers. This ensures that
> X * all streams are written out and closed.
	...
> X  for (i = 0; i < _NFILE; i++)
> X    if (_iop[i] != NULL)
> X      (void) fclose(_iop[i]);

The last line above should instead be:
> X      (void) fflush(_iop[i]);

The fclose() is an inefficiency dating back to the original stdio.
Unless MINIX is strangely different from standard UN*X
there is no need to *close* any files,
one simply needs to ensure that all streams are written out.

If you have a system that can trace system calls,
it becomes painfully evident that virtually every command ends with:
	close(0);
	close(1);
	close(2);
	exit(0);
There is no reason whatsoever for the close() calls!

Further evidence:
* I have changed the fclose to be fflush in various UN*X flavors,
the first time was in 1980.  Never a glitch.

* I have posted flames such as this one (including to this very newsgroup
a couple years ago), never a counterargument.

I admit this is a minor inefficiency, and I should not be preoccupied with it,
but the fix is so trivial that it is very frustrating
that no one has bothered to apply it.
HELP ME!
	Tom Truscott