file descriptor Definition file descriptor
A file descriptor is an integer between 1 and 20 that indexes an
area in the operating system's list of internal file descriptors.
It is used by routines like open, close, and lseek to work with
files. A file descriptor is not the same as a FILE stream, which
is used by routines like fopen, fclose, or fread.
***** See Also *****
COHERENT system calls, definitions, file, FILE
COHERENT Lexicon Page 1