xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/fd.4 (revision fcb560670601b2a4d87bb31d7531c8dcc37ee71b)
1.\" Copyright (c) 1990, 1991, 1993
2.\"	The Regents of the University of California.  All rights reserved.
3.\"
4.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
5.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
6.\" are met:
7.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
8.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
9.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
10.\"    notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
11.\"    documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
12.\" 3. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
13.\"    may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
14.\"    without specific prior written permission.
15.\"
16.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND
17.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
18.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
19.\" ARE DISCLAIMED.  IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
20.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
21.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
22.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
23.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
24.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
25.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
26.\" SUCH DAMAGE.
27.\"
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