This is actually really handy behavior to have in a number of cases. A prominent example is temp files. They will automatically be cleaned up on process exit by

This is actually really handy behavior to have in a number of cases. A prominent example is temp files. They will automatically be cleaned up on process exit by the filesystem if you open and then delete them. It also helps prevent (not completely, but greatly reduces the window) others from accessing the temp file. you can also use this for intermediate files. Process A creates and writes, B opens for read and immediately deletes the file. A can continue writing and B continue reading until both close their file descriptor, at which point the inodes will get freed.