Q9Operating Systems (Departmental Elective)
Question
2 marks
Define File Descriptor.
Answer
A File Descriptor is a positive mathematical integer utilized by the OS Kernel to uniquely identify an open file within a specific process.
A File Descriptor is a highly abstract mathematical handle (an integer like 0, 1, or 3). When a process successfully executes an open() system call, the Kernel creates an entry in the massive global open-file table and returns this integer, allowing the process to aggressively execute read() or write() operations.