golang os.Close() function works, but os.Remove() function does not

Question

I am trying to create a file, open it, do some processing on it & close it. Finally, I want to delete the file. All these operations are executed successfully, except the deletion.

My code is:

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "os"
    "log"
)

func main() {
    fmt.Println("Hello")
    metaFileName := "./metadata.txt"
    _, err2 := os.Create(metaFileName)
    if err2 != nil {
        log.Fatal(err2)
    }
    
    openMetaFile, err := os.Open(metaFileName)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    
    err = openMetaFile.Close()
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    
    err = os.Remove(metaFileName)
    if err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }
    
    fmt.Println("Success")
}

The output is:

Hello
2020/08/24 00:00:00 remove ./metadata.txt: The process cannot access the file be
cause it is being used by another process.

I am clueless about this

Answer 1

The problem is related to the first opened file.

package main

import (
    "fmt"
    "log"
    "os"
)

const metaFileName = "./metadata.txt"

func main() {
    var (
        err                   error
        tmpFile, openMetaFile *os.File
    )

    fmt.Println("Hello")
    if tmpFile, err = os.Create(metaFileName); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    if err = tmpFile.Close(); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    if openMetaFile, err = os.Open(metaFileName); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    if err = openMetaFile.Close(); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    if err = os.Remove(metaFileName); err != nil {
        log.Fatal(err)
    }

    fmt.Println("Success")
}

As you can see, i've used the var tmpFile in order to close the first file that you have opened. The result is following one:

Hello
Success