xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/fd.4 (revision 57718be8fa0bd5edc11ab9a72e68cc71982939a6)
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28.\"     @(#)fd.4	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/9/93
29.\" $FreeBSD$
30.\"
31.Dd June 9, 1993
32.Dt FD 4
33.Os
34.Sh NAME
35.Nm fd ,
36.Nm stdin ,
37.Nm stdout ,
38.Nm stderr
39.Nd file descriptor files
40.Sh DESCRIPTION
41The files
42.Pa /dev/fd/0
43through
44.Pa /dev/fd/#
45refer to file descriptors which can be accessed through the file
46system.
47If the file descriptor is open and the mode the file is being opened
48with is a subset of the mode of the existing descriptor, the call:
49.Bd -literal -offset indent
50fd = open("/dev/fd/0", mode);
51.Ed
52.Pp
53and the call:
54.Bd -literal -offset indent
55fd = fcntl(0, F_DUPFD, 0);
56.Ed
57.Pp
58are equivalent.
59.Pp
60Opening the files
61.Pa /dev/stdin ,
62.Pa /dev/stdout
63and
64.Pa /dev/stderr
65is equivalent to the following calls:
66.Bd -literal -offset indent
67fd = fcntl(STDIN_FILENO,  F_DUPFD, 0);
68fd = fcntl(STDOUT_FILENO, F_DUPFD, 0);
69fd = fcntl(STDERR_FILENO, F_DUPFD, 0);
70.Ed
71.Pp
72Flags to the
73.Xr open 2
74call other than
75.Dv O_RDONLY ,
76.Dv O_WRONLY
77and
78.Dv O_RDWR
79are ignored.
80.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
81By default,
82.Pa /dev/fd
83is provided by
84.Xr devfs 5 ,
85which provides nodes for the first three file descriptors.
86Some sites may require nodes for additional file descriptors; these can be
87made available by mounting
88.Xr fdescfs 5
89on
90.Pa /dev/fd .
91.Sh FILES
92.Bl -tag -width /dev/stderr -compact
93.It Pa /dev/fd/#
94.It Pa /dev/stdin
95.It Pa /dev/stdout
96.It Pa /dev/stderr
97.El
98.Sh SEE ALSO
99.Xr tty 4 ,
100.Xr devfs 5 ,
101.Xr fdescfs 5
102