'\" t
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.TH SEM_DESTROY 3 2015-08-08 "Linux" "Linux Programmer's Manual"
.SH NAME
sem_destroy \- destroy an unnamed semaphore
.SH SYNOPSIS
.nf
.B #include <semaphore.h>
.sp
.BI "int sem_destroy(sem_t *" sem );
.fi
.sp
Link with \fI\-pthread\fP.
.SH DESCRIPTION
.BR sem_destroy ()
destroys the unnamed semaphore at the address pointed to by
.IR sem .

Only a semaphore that has been initialized by
.BR sem_init (3)
should be destroyed using
.BR sem_destroy ().

Destroying a semaphore that other processes or threads are
currently blocked on (in
.BR sem_wait (3))
produces undefined behavior.

Using a semaphore that has been destroyed produces undefined results,
until the semaphore has been reinitialized using
.BR sem_init (3).
.SH RETURN VALUE
.BR sem_destroy ()
returns 0 on success;
on error, \-1 is returned, and
.I errno
is set to indicate the error.
.SH ERRORS
.TP
.B EINVAL
.I sem
is not a valid semaphore.
.SH ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see
.BR attributes (7).
.TS
allbox;
lb lb lb
l l l.
Interface	Attribute	Value
T{
.BR sem_destroy ()
T}	Thread safety	MT-Safe
.TE
.SH CONFORMING TO
POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008.
.SH NOTES
An unnamed semaphore should be destroyed with
.BR sem_destroy ()
before the memory in which it is located is deallocated.
Failure to do this can result in resource leaks on some implementations.
.\" But not on NPTL, where sem_destroy () is a no-op..
.SH SEE ALSO
.BR sem_init (3),
.BR sem_post (3),
.BR sem_wait (3),
.BR sem_overview (7)
.SH COLOPHON
This page is part of release 4.10 of the Linux
.I man-pages
project.
A description of the project,
information about reporting bugs,
and the latest version of this page,
can be found at
\%https://www.kernel.org/doc/man\-pages/.