Tbh, it looks like calls to zclose(map->fd) were unnecessary regardless of this patch, as all maps are closed at the end of bpf_object_load() in case of an error. [...] > diff --git a/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c b/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c > index f29cfb344f80..e0085aef17d7 100644 > --- a/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c > +++ b/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf.c [...] > @@ -5275,13 +5289,11 @@ static int bpf_object_create_map(struct bpf_object *obj, struct bpf_map *map, bo > create_attr.btf_value_type_id = 0; > map->btf_key_type_id = 0; > map->btf_value_type_id = 0; > - map->fd = bpf_map_create(def->type, map_name, > - def->key_size, def->value_size, > - def->max_entries, &create_attr); > + map_fd = bpf_map_create(def->type, map_name, > + def->key_size, def->value_size, > + def->max_entries, &create_attr); > } > > - err = map->fd < 0 ? -errno : 0; > - > if (bpf_map_type_is_map_in_map(def->type) && map->inner_map) { > if (obj->gen_loader) > map->inner_map->fd = -1; > @@ -5289,7 +5301,19 @@ static int bpf_object_create_map(struct bpf_object *obj, struct bpf_map *map, bo > zfree(&map->inner_map); > } > > - return err; > + if (map_fd < 0) > + return -errno; Nit: this check is now placed after call to bpf_map_destroy(), which might call munmap(), which might overwrite "errno", set by some of the previous calls to bpf_map_create(). [...] > diff --git a/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf_internal.h b/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf_internal.h > index b5d334754e5d..662a3df1e29f 100644 > --- a/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf_internal.h > +++ b/tools/lib/bpf/libbpf_internal.h > @@ -555,6 +555,30 @@ static inline int ensure_good_fd(int fd) > return fd; > } > > +static inline int create_placeholder_fd(void) > +{ > + int fd; > + > + fd = ensure_good_fd(open("/dev/null", O_WRONLY | O_CLOEXEC)); Stupid question: is it ok to assume that /dev is always mounted? Googling says that kernel chooses if to mount it automatically depending on the value of CONFIG_DEVTMPFS_MOUNT option. Another option might be memfd_create(). > + if (fd < 0) > + return -errno; > + return fd; > +} [...]