file descriptor
<programming, operating system> An integer that identifies an open file
within a process. This number is obtained as a result of opening a file.
Operations which read, write, or close a file would take the file descriptor as
an input parameter.
In many operating system implementations, file descriptors are small integers
which index a table of open files. In Unix, file descriptors 0, 1 and 2
correspond to the standard input, standard output and standard error files
respectively.
See file descriptor leak.
(1998-02-06)
Nearby terms:
File Composition « file compression « file control
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file descriptor » file descriptor leak » file
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