nixCraft

what is open file in linux does it create problems for the OS can anyone please explain .

Thanks in advance

__________________
Shrikumar

"open file" let me guess you are trying to ask this, am i right?
"what is an open file?"
and
"what does open files do?"
and
"are open files good/bad/ugly?"

so i am also trying to answer these questions based on what i know and learnt, which is obviously less and minute, but here i go with the try.
open file can be either a thread or a process or just simply a file which you are editing now. viz. if you are running apache? then httpd.conf is a file which is triggered by sockets and process and forks and threads and io and stacks and et al many more. (please refer to kernel docs, this is IMHO kernel specific question, linux standardbase and linux filesystems docs are ideal wrt this post).
thus apache which is triggered of via httpd.conf spins and forks up other process.
and if they are process or threads they will open files which run the files or process and subprocess or threads of the parent. pid 1 forks into N number of subprocess and threads. pid 1 is the system init process and is same with all *nix and linux OS even M$ windows, infact any and every OS including the asm based OS. i think thats a very short microscopic rather atomic level answer to the first requestioned question. there are books on filesystem.
BSD - design and implementation of 4.4 BSD (not just the freebsd specific edition) please read those for more info.


2nd question: whats their role. simple they run and monitor and execute process and processess and sub sub sub blah blah they in short run the entire PC or mainframe or anything else. viz /dev/mem will list all the minute details of how RAM is allocating how much memory to what process and also other statistics. this is also a micro atomic level answer to this question. read the books for more info.

3 rd question: is it good/bad/ugly. this is like a mirror on the wall statement. some files are good rather essential, like init which is spanned off ram upon start and when BIOS hands off the memory from RAM to linux or *nix or BSD or windows et al OS. bad? when things screw up, it can have minimal to disaster effects. and ugly? hehe rootkits and other IDS attack and sshmitm and mitm attacks. compromising everything. security is a myth, and its always broken and is breakable.


did i answer your question properly? if i did? order me a pizza. food! mmmmmmmm!