A small positive integer that the system uses instead of the file name to identify an open file.

An integer that is associated with a file. Allows you to read and write from a file using the integer instead of the filename.

A file descriptor is returned by the open creat(2), and dup(2) system calls. The file descriptor is used by other system calls (for example, read write(2), and close(2)) to refer to a the file.

An integer that is returned by certain HP-UX system I/O routines and then passed to others to provide access to a file. A file descriptor is similar to Fortran's logical unit number. When the Fortran 90 intrinsic FNUM is given a logical unit number, it returns a file descriptor.

a description of an open file

a handle represented by an unsigned integer used by a process to identify an open file

a low positive integer

an integer identifying an open file

an integer that corresponds to a file or device opened by a specific process

an integer that identifies the file

an object that a process uses to read or write to an open file and open network sockets (although there are other uses)

a small integer, unlike the filehandle, which is a symbol

a small integer used to do I/O on a file

A small unsigned integer that a UNIX system uses to identify a file. A file descriptor is created by a process through issuing an open system call for the file name. A file descriptor ceases to exist when it is no longer held by any process.

A number used by programs to identify files for input and output operations. The standard input, standard output, and stadard error are assigned file descriptors 0, 1, and 2, respectively.

This is used in low level I/O (open/read/write/close functions) to identify a file. It is an integer number assigned to a file name by open and then used as a unique identifier by read/write and close.

A handle to an i/o resource, for instance a file, socket or terminal. See also: file descriptor table

In computer programming, a file descriptor is an abstract key for accessing a file. The term is generally used in POSIX operating systems. In Microsoft Windows terminology and in the context of the C standard I/O library, "file handle" is preferred, though the latter case is technically a different object (see below).