Re: Difference between File Handles and File Descriptors in function parameters.

If I read this Perl Cookbook Chapter 7 I don't see any advantage in using filedescriptors.

Perl's I/O system uses filehandles instead of file descriptors, so you have to make a new filehandle for an already open file descriptor.

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Re^2: Difference between File Handles and File Descriptors in function parameters. by tusty (Novice) on Aug 11, 2011 at 14:57 UTC
thanks for your response, So what exactly is a file descriptor?? somehow I find that no page I found really answers that question, they just talk about how to use it. Why would any one want to pass or return a file descriptor?	[reply]
Re^3: Difference between File Handles and File Descriptors in function parameters. by TomDLux (Vicar) on Aug 11, 2011 at 15:20 UTC
A file descriptor is a number which specifies a IO stream. In Unix and other POSIX environments, there is an array called the file descriptor table, and you can use a number which indexes one of those entries: 0 is STDIN, 1 is STDOUT, 2 is STDERR ... the remainder you open yourself. See Wikipedia's explanation. As Occam said: Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem.	[reply]
Re^3: Difference between File Handles and File Descriptors in function parameters. by jethro (Monsignor) on Aug 11, 2011 at 15:21 UTC
A file descriptor is just a number local to your program, in effect enumerating your open files. Well known file descriptors are 0 (usually pointing to STDIN), 1 (STDOUT) and 2 (STDERR) I don't see any advantage in this case, but I'm no expert on this. Maybe it was a miscomunication and he just meant to use $fd filehandles instead of FD filehandles!?	[reply]