diff --git a/src/file.cc b/src/file.cc
index 3f6b71aa..a8c20205 100644
--- a/src/file.cc
+++ b/src/file.cc
@@ -194,13 +194,15 @@ void write_buffer_to_file(Buffer& buffer, StringView filename)
 {
     buffer.run_hook_in_own_context("BufWritePre", buffer.name());
 
-    int fd = open(parse_filename(filename).c_str(),
-                  O_CREAT | O_WRONLY | O_TRUNC, 0644);
-    if (fd == -1)
-        throw file_access_error(filename, strerror(errno));
-    auto close_fd = on_scope_end([fd]{ close(fd); });
+    {
+        int fd = open(parse_filename(filename).c_str(),
+                      O_CREAT | O_WRONLY | O_TRUNC, 0644);
+        if (fd == -1)
+            throw file_access_error(filename, strerror(errno));
+        auto close_fd = on_scope_end([fd]{ close(fd); });
 
-    write_buffer_to_fd(buffer, fd);
+        write_buffer_to_fd(buffer, fd);
+    }
 
     if ((buffer.flags() & Buffer::Flags::File) and
         real_path(filename) == real_path(buffer.name()))