4 ms·
They represent resources managed by the kernel, exposed to userspace via an integer handle. The already established convention for opening and closing files fit
by bluetomcat 3y ago
They represent resources managed by the kernel, exposed to userspace via an integer handle. The already established convention for opening and closing files fits that use case. You can duplicate and pass that handle to child processes, and the resource itself is reference-counted for free. They are "abstract files" with specific behaviours, if you will.