Do I need to check the return status of fclose() if I'm only reading a file?

Question

Related: fclose return value check

Although it's important to check the return value of fclose() if you're writing a file (in case the flush operation fails), is it necessary to do so when reading a file?

FILE *f = fopen(path, "r");
if (f == NULL)
    return 0;

/* Do something with the file... */

if (fclose(f) != 0) {
    /* Error closing a file we successfully read. */
    return 0;
}

Answer 1

Is there anything you could do if it fails? Then yes. If there's nothing you can do - then you can ignore it.

Good practice is to always check for errors and at least log them, if there's nothing else you can do about it.

Answer 2

If the close() fails, you might have an error you care about. Files are more than data. They are metadata, and they are resources. If close() fails, you might still have a filehandle open. You might still be pinning the file's data, preventing it from being reused by the filesystem. You might still have network connections open. If the file's atime is updated on close(), you'll have a stale atime for the file. These are things you really should be curious about.