Overview of the filedescriptor subsystem
Adrian Chadd <adrian@creative.net.au>

$Id: fd-management.txt,v 1.1 2000/11/08 19:57:54 adrian Exp $


Filedescriptor lists
--------------------

The filedescriptor list is managed through the routines in fdlist.c .
These include:

fd_open() - tag an FD as "open" and active
fd_close() - tag an FD as "closed" and close() the filedescriptor
fd_note() - update the filedescriptor tag

You can get the current list of open filedescriptors through /stats F as
an oper.



FD lists
--------

The FD list support is very alpha. There are a few lists defined:

typedef enum fdlist_t {
    FDLIST_NONE,
    FDLIST_SERVICE,
    FDLIST_SERVER,
    FDLIST_IDLECLIENT,
    FDLIST_BUSYCLIENT,
    FDLIST_MAX
} fdlist_t;

FDLIST_NONE		Not on any list (ie close()d)
FDLIST_SERVICE		A service - listen() sockets, resolver, etc
FDLIST_SERVER		Server connections
FDLIST_IDLECLIENT	An idle client
FDLIST_BUSYCLIENT	A busy client
FDLIST_MAX		Used for bounds checking

The idea is that the SERVICE sockets need polling frequently, the SERVER
sockets also need polling frequently, BUSYCLIENT is for busy clients
which need frequent polling (eg we're trying to write to them), and
IDLECLIENT is for clients which we don't need to poll frequently.
THIS hasn't been decided upon yet.



File operations
---------------

The file operations are also wrapped through file_open() and file_close()
which handle calling fd_open() / fd_close() and tracking the filedescriptors
correctly. fbopen() / fbclose() use file_open() / file_close() too.

fileio.c defines the functions:

int
file_open(const char *filename, int mode, int fmode)

A wrapper around open(filename, flags, mode). Read the open manpage for
information. file_open() enforces filedescriptor limits and tags the FD
through fd_open().

void
file_close(int fd)

A wrapper around close() for files. close() handles fd_close()ing the fd.


FBFILE *
fbopen(const char *filename, const char *mode)

void
fbclose(FBFILE *fb)

These are the 'buffered disk IO' routines. You can read the code yourself.
Note that these routines use file_open() and file_close().