xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/fd.4 (revision 1a720cbec513210fa2e85c3882741ef2f6dc5f35)
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28.Dd June 9, 1993
29.Dt FD 4
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm fd ,
33.Nm stdin ,
34.Nm stdout ,
35.Nm stderr
36.Nd file descriptor files
37.Sh DESCRIPTION
38The files
39.Pa /dev/fd/0
40through
41.Pa /dev/fd/#
42refer to file descriptors which can be accessed through the file
43system.
44If the file descriptor is open and the mode the file is being opened
45with is a subset of the mode of the existing descriptor, the call:
46.Bd -literal -offset indent
47fd = open("/dev/fd/0", mode);
48.Ed
49.Pp
50and the call:
51.Bd -literal -offset indent
52fd = fcntl(0, F_DUPFD, 0);
53.Ed
54.Pp
55are equivalent.
56.Pp
57Opening the files
58.Pa /dev/stdin ,
59.Pa /dev/stdout
60and
61.Pa /dev/stderr
62is equivalent to the following calls:
63.Bd -literal -offset indent
64fd = fcntl(STDIN_FILENO,  F_DUPFD, 0);
65fd = fcntl(STDOUT_FILENO, F_DUPFD, 0);
66fd = fcntl(STDERR_FILENO, F_DUPFD, 0);
67.Ed
68.Pp
69Flags to the
70.Xr open 2
71call other than
72.Dv O_RDONLY ,
73.Dv O_WRONLY
74and
75.Dv O_RDWR
76are ignored.
77.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
78By default,
79.Pa /dev/fd
80is provided by
81.Xr devfs 4 ,
82which provides nodes for the first three file descriptors.
83Some sites may require nodes for additional file descriptors; these can be
84made available by mounting
85.Xr fdescfs 4
86on
87.Pa /dev/fd .
88.Sh FILES
89.Bl -tag -width /dev/stderr -compact
90.It Pa /dev/fd/#
91.It Pa /dev/stdin
92.It Pa /dev/stdout
93.It Pa /dev/stderr
94.El
95.Sh SEE ALSO
96.Xr devfs 4 ,
97.Xr fdescfs 4 ,
98.Xr tty 4
99