What is difference between file and stream?

A file can be, for example, a data set that you can read and write repeatedly (such as a disk file), a stream of bytes generated by a program (such as a pipeline), or a stream of bytes received from or sent to a peripheral device (such as the keyboard or display). The latter two are interactive files.

What is the difference between stream and file in Java?

It is a character-oriented class that is used for file handling in java. This class inherits from the InputStreamReader class. FileReader is used for reading streams of characters….Java.

What is the difference between file descriptor and file handle?

9 Answers. A file descriptor is a low-level integer “handle” used to identify an opened file (or socket, or whatever) at the kernel level, in Linux and other Unix-like systems. You pass “naked” file descriptors to actual Unix calls, such as read() , write() and so on.

What is the difference between file descriptor and inode?

An inode is a filesystem structure that represents files. Whereas, a file descriptor is an integer returned by open syscall. By definition: Files are represented by inodes.

Is a file descriptor a stream?

File descriptors are represented as objects of type int , while streams are represented as FILE * objects. File descriptors provide a primitive, low-level interface to input and output operations. Streams provide a higher-level interface, layered on top of the primitive file descriptor facilities.

What is a stream file?

A stream file is a randomly accessible sequence of bytes, with no further structure imposed by the system. Other examples of stream files are PC files and the files in UNIX systems. An integrated file system stream file is a system object that has an object type of *STMF.

What do you mean by file stream?

A stream is a sequence of bytes. In the NTFS file system, streams contain the data that is written to a file, and that gives more information about a file than attributes and properties. For example, you can create a stream that contains search keywords, or the identity of the user account that creates a file.

What are file descriptors used for?

A file descriptor is a number that uniquely identifies an open file in a computer’s operating system. It describes a data resource, and how that resource may be accessed. When a program asks to open a file — or another data resource, like a network socket — the kernel: Grants access.

Do processes share file descriptors?

File descriptors are generally unique to each process, but they can be shared by child processes created with a fork subroutine or copied by the fcntl, dup, and dup2 subroutines.

How do I find file descriptor?

Get the file descriptor from a FILE pointer (e.g. file ) in C on Linux: int fd = fileno(file); More details can be found in the man page of fileno : fileno manual .

What are examples of streaming?

Streaming media is video and audio data transmitted over a computer network for immediate playback rather than for file download and later offline playback. Examples of streaming video and audio include YouTube, internet radio and television broadcasts, and corporate webcasts.

Why is it called streaming?

The term “streaming” was first used for tape drives manufactured by Data Electronics Inc. that were meant to slowly ramp up and run for the entire track; slower ramp times lowered drive costs. “Streaming” was applied in the early 1990s as a better description for video on demand and later live video on IP networks.

What is a file descriptor?

A file descriptor is just an integer which you get from the POSIX open () call. Using the standard C fopen () you get a FILE struct back. The FILE struct contains this file descriptor amongst other things such as end-of-file and error indicator, stream position etc. So using fopen () gives you a certain amount of abstraction compared to open ().

What is the difference between file descriptor and stream in C?

Both file descriptors and streams can represent a connection to a device (such as a terminal), or a pipe or socket for communicating with another process, as well as a normal file. […] For historical reasons, the type of the C data structure that represents a stream is called FILE rather than “stream”.

Can I open a connection as a file descriptor?

You can also initially open a connection as a file descriptor and then make a stream associated with that file descriptor. In general, you should stick with using streams rather than file descriptors, unless there is some specific operation you want to do that can only be done on a file descriptor.

How do I extract a file descriptor from a stream?

Since streams are implemented in terms of file descriptors, you can extract the file descriptor from a stream and perform low-level operations directly on the file descriptor. You can also initially open a connection as a file descriptor and then make a stream associated with that file descriptor.