close_on_exec=

Sets a close-on-exec flag.

f = open("/dev/null")
f.close_on_exec = true
system("cat", "/proc/self/fd/#{f.fileno}") # cat: /proc/self/fd/3: No such file or directory
f.closed?                #=> false

Ruby sets close-on-exec flags of all file descriptors by default since Ruby 2.0.0. So you don't need to set by yourself. Also, unsetting a close-on-exec flag can cause file descriptor leak if another thread use fork() and exec() (via system() method for example). If you really needs file descriptor inheritance to child process, use spawn()'s argument such as fd=>fd.