File descriptor

A nonnegative integer identifying an open access in one operating-system process. The program passes its value to operations such as reading and closing; the operating-system kernel interprets it through that operating-system process's descriptor table. In the toy example, table entry 3 refers to an open file description for inode 42. Another operating-system process's entry 3 can reach a different file, and a closed file descriptor value can be reused. ^[ref]

A process-associated mapping from small nonnegative integers to open file descriptions, with descriptor-specific flags. Several file descriptors can share an open file description; their current file offset is then shared. The traditional model has one table per process, although operating systems can support explicit sharing between processes.

A record of an open access to a file, including its current position and access mode. Each file descriptor reaches one open file description, but several file descriptors can share it. Separately opening the same ordinary file creates separate open file descriptions with independent positions while still reaching the same inode. Thus file descriptors, open file descriptions and hard links have different counts. ^[ref]

// Target: computer-science.bigb

The logical system-wide collection of open file descriptions. Each description represents an opening, including access mode, current file offset and a reference to the underlying file. Independent opens of the same file normally create different descriptions, whereas descriptor duplication can make multiple file descriptors share one description. A table is an abstract organization here, not a requirement that all entries occupy one fixed array.