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Difference between file descriptor and file pointer

 
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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers Difference between file descriptor and file pointer
# 1  
Old 03-11-2010
While I would mostly agree with the file descriptor definition, a file pointer is not usually what you describe but commonly used to refer to what the standard C library uses to handle files (FILE *).

The associated functions are fopen, fclose, fread, fwrite, fscanf and the likes.
# 2  
Old 03-14-2010
Quote:
Originally Posted by jlliagre
While I would mostly agree with the file descriptor definition, a file pointer is not usually what you describe but commonly used to refer to what the standard C library uses to handle files (FILE *).

The associated functions are fopen, fclose, fread, fwrite, fscanf and the likes.
I would also note that a file pointer has an associated file descriptor used by the library functions to do the actual I/O calls to the kernel. You can get the associated fd using the fileno function.
 
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