On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 3:53 PM, Tom Christiansen <tchr...@perl.com> wrote: > However, streams are set up so that their error flag gets set on any > failed I/O operation, and this sticky flag carries through until the > ultimate close, whose return reflects that.
I think PerlIO is currently not checking the ferror bit on close/flush for read-only handles, it's surprisingly non-trivial to properly test though. I don't know if this behavior is by accident or on purpose. >> Even close(2) itself can fail, including through EINTR or once >> again, through EIO [from] a previously uncommitted write(2) >> having its own trouble. PerlIO will handle EINTR actually, at least for read, write and close. open doesn't though. > One key point here is that even if you pretend nothing else matters-- > utterly foolish though that would be--the pesky EIO is *always* a > possibility of ruining your day. Bad disk, anybody? *That* never > happens, eh? :( I still have a hard time imagining how closing a read-only filehandle can cause EIOs, but I believe you if you say they happen. I've heard weirder things. > So Leon, are you "enlightened"? Still think you can *ever* safely > ignore close errors, even on files "merely" opened O_RDONLY? :) For most trivial programs I still wouldn't bother too much about it, though you are right it's important for anything serious. Leon
