Mastering PHP’s pclose(): Properly Closing Process Pipes

Function Signature

int pclose(resource $handle)

Description

The pclose() function closes a process file pointer that was opened with popen(). It terminates the associated process and returns its exit status.

Parameters

$handle : A valid file pointer returned by a successful call to popen(). The handle must refer to a pipe opened for reading or writing.

Return Value

On success, pclose() returns the termination status of the executed command. If an error occurs, it returns -1.

Example

<?php
$handle = popen('/bin/ls', 'r');
// Use $handle to read output if needed
pclose($handle);
?>

This example opens a pipe to the /bin/ls command for reading, then properly closes the pipe with pclose(), releasing system resources and obtaining the command's exit status.