Definitions for "File descriptor"
A small positive integer that the system uses instead of the file name to identify an open file.
An integer that is associated with a file. Allows you to read and write from a file using the integer instead of the filename.
A file descriptor is returned by the open creat(2), and dup(2) system calls. The file descriptor is used by other system calls (for example, read write(2), and close(2)) to refer to a the file.
Keywords:  inode, disk, data, references
an inode that references the data on disk
A pointer to a structure describing a file.
Keywords:  array, index
an index into that array
Keywords:  associated, number
a number associated