One simple answer is that the Unix API provides no way to report delayed errors for file and directory operations. If you write() data, it is an accepted part of the Unix API that errors stemming from that write may not be reported until much later, such as when you close() the file. This includes not just ‘IO error’ type errors, but also problems such as ‘out of space’ or ‘disk quota exceeded’; they may only appear and become definite when the system forces the data to be written out. However, there’s no equivalent of close() for things like removing files or renaming them, or making directories; the Unix API assumes that these either succeed or fail on the spot.