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<concept id="GUID-3BC54F46-5F81-5F2D-ACF8-E8E0A0D5A345" xml:lang="en"><title>Handles

versus File Descriptors</title><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>

<p>STDLIB provides a POSIX-like abstraction of file descriptors which unifies

the different types of resource and permits a single API to be used across

all of them. This is a significantly different approach from Win32 and the

Symbian platform, both of which have separate APIs for each distinct type

of resource. </p>

<p>STDLIB supports files stored in the file system, sockets, a console, and

a <codeph>/dev/null</codeph> device. The first time STDLIB initialises its

internal file descriptor table it creates an emulated console device and attaches

it to descriptors 0, 1 and 2. The emulated console device will appear as a

window when it is first used (i.e. when the program writes to or reads from

the console). </p>

<p>The <codeph>open()</codeph> function recognises the following names: </p>

<ul>

<li id="GUID-6093ADF0-5171-5ECC-910A-7F1CDCEBA54F"><p> <codeph>CON:</codeph> is

taken to mean a newly-created console. This will never be the same console

as the one automatically associated with 0, 1 and 2. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-F99DC14D-ABD1-5B2C-BD93-966986F974B8"><p> <codeph>NUL:</codeph> is

taken to mean a <codeph>/dev/null</codeph> device. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-11DF24CF-BF8C-5DBD-87AA-AF667953D8E6"><p> <codeph>TMP:</codeph> is

taken to mean a temporary file, which will use the underlying Symbian platform

file system facilities to create a uniquely-named temporary file, and will

cause the file to be deleted after it has been closed cleanly. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-9D55E093-D3CA-5FDA-B32D-918675840C4A"><p> <codeph>COMx:</codeph> is

the serial port where x is a number from 1 to 9. <codeph>COM1:</codeph> corresponds

to serial port zero and so on. </p> </li>

<li id="GUID-96E9F3A9-9A90-5A27-8B2B-50151CBA045B"><p> <codeph>IRCOMx:</codeph> is

the serial port where x is a number from 1 to 9. </p> </li>

</ul>

<p>The number of open files in the file has no explicit limit. </p>

<p>The Symbian platform resources such as <codeph>RFile</codeph> and <codeph>RSocket</codeph> are

derived from class <codeph>RSubSessionBase</codeph>, so are thread specific.

This means they cannot be used by any thread other than the one which opened

them. In STDLIB however, the <codeph>CPosixServer</codeph>, if running, controls

the master file descriptor table. In this case, all STDLIB threads in a process

may share their resources, because the STDLIB implementation forwards all

I/o requests to the resources owned by that process's <codeph>CPosixServer</codeph> thread.

If no <codeph>CPosixServer</codeph> is running, each thread has a separate

file descriptor table and the resources are not shareable. </p>

</conbody></concept>