MOUNT_FDESC(8) BSD System Manager's Manual MOUNT_FDESC(8)NAME
mount_fdesc — mount the file-descriptor file system
SYNOPSIS
mount_fdesc [-o options] fdesc mount_point
DESCRIPTION
The mount_fdesc command attaches an instance of the per-process file
descriptor namespace to the global filesystem namespace. The conven‐
tional mount point is /dev and the filesystem should be union mounted in
order to augment, rather than replace, the existing entries in /dev.
This command is normally executed by mount(8) at boot time.
The options are as follows:
-o Options are specified with a -o flag followed by a comma sepa‐
rated string of options. See the mount(8) man page for possible
options and their meanings.
The contents of the mount point are fd, stderr, stdin, stdout and tty.
fd is a directory whose contents appear as a list of numbered files which
correspond to the open files of the process reading the directory. The
files /dev/fd/0 through /dev/fd/# refer to file descriptors which can be
accessed through the file system. If the file descriptor is open and the
mode the file is being opened with is a subset of the mode of the exist‐
ing descriptor, the call:
fd = open("/dev/fd/0", mode);
and the call:
fd = fcntl(0, F_DUPFD, 0);
are equivalent.
The files /dev/stdin, /dev/stdout and /dev/stderr appear as symlinks to
the relevant entry in the /dev/fd sub-directory. Opening them is equiva‐
lent to the following calls:
fd = fcntl(STDIN_FILENO, F_DUPFD, 0);
fd = fcntl(STDOUT_FILENO, F_DUPFD, 0);
fd = fcntl(STDERR_FILENO, F_DUPFD, 0);
Flags to the open(2) call other than O_RDONLY, O_WRONLY and O_RDWR are
ignored.
The /dev/tty entry is an indirect reference to the current process's con‐
trolling terminal. It appears as a named pipe (FIFO) but behaves in
exactly the same way as the real controlling terminal device.
FILES
/dev/fd/#
/dev/stdin
/dev/stdout
/dev/stderr
/dev/tty
SEE ALSOmount(2), unmount(2), tty(4), fstab(5), mount(8)CAVEATS
No ~. and .. entries appear when listing the contents of the /dev/fd
directory. This makes sense in the context of this filesystem, but is
inconsistent with usual filesystem conventions. However, it is still
possible to refer to both ~. and .. in a pathname.
This filesystem may not be NFS-exported.
HISTORY
The mount_fdesc utility first appeared in 4.4BSD.
4.4BSD March 27, 1994 4.4BSD