diff --git a/libcxx/src/filesystem/operations.cpp b/libcxx/src/filesystem/operations.cpp
--- a/libcxx/src/filesystem/operations.cpp
+++ b/libcxx/src/filesystem/operations.cpp
@@ -1416,12 +1416,14 @@
   if (fd != -1) {
     // If that worked, iterate over the contents of the directory and
     // remove everything in it, recursively.
-    scope_exit close_fd([=] { ::close(fd); });
     DIR* stream = ::fdopendir(fd);
     if (stream == nullptr) {
+      ::close(fd);
       ec = detail::capture_errno();
       return 0;
     }
+    // Note: `::closedir` will also close the associated file descriptor, so
+    // there should be no call to `close(fd)`.
     scope_exit close_stream([=] { ::closedir(stream); });
 
     uintmax_t count = 0;