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author | Andrew M. Kuchling <amk@amk.ca> | 2005-08-31 13:50:17 (GMT) |
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committer | Andrew M. Kuchling <amk@amk.ca> | 2005-08-31 13:50:17 (GMT) |
commit | e1a385ab400fa2082caddde001c8c9e1db0c1ded (patch) | |
tree | 67e532e17d756037dbdbaa2d26b6704ffa3ef6b8 /Doc | |
parent | ff9ca5e39b972fd21dbf928fc912f95bb2ae3fee (diff) | |
download | cpython-e1a385ab400fa2082caddde001c8c9e1db0c1ded.zip cpython-e1a385ab400fa2082caddde001c8c9e1db0c1ded.tar.gz cpython-e1a385ab400fa2082caddde001c8c9e1db0c1ded.tar.bz2 |
Explain what file descriptors are; this change has been sitting in my tree for a while
Diffstat (limited to 'Doc')
-rw-r--r-- | Doc/lib/libos.tex | 11 |
1 files changed, 9 insertions, 2 deletions
diff --git a/Doc/lib/libos.tex b/Doc/lib/libos.tex index dc621dd..2fbecfa 100644 --- a/Doc/lib/libos.tex +++ b/Doc/lib/libos.tex @@ -427,8 +427,15 @@ functions have a different order. \subsection{File Descriptor Operations \label{os-fd-ops}} -These functions operate on I/O streams referred to -using file descriptors. +These functions operate on I/O streams referenced using file +descriptors. + +File descriptors are small integers corresponding to a file that has +been opened by the current process. For example, standard input is +usually file descriptor 0, standard output is 1, and standard error is +2. Further files opened by a process will then be assigned 3, 4, 5, +and so forth. The name ``file descriptor'' is slightly deceptive; on +{\UNIX} platforms, sockets and pipes are also referenced by file descriptors. \begin{funcdesc}{close}{fd} |