Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: getfh() systemcall
Keywords: getfh() NFS
Message-ID: <3682@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 18 Jul 90 18:57:19 GMT
References: <1990Jul16.161053.4685@duc220.uni-duisburg.de> <2499@inews.intel.com>
Distribution: comp
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 25

>The old getfh took a file descriptor, so
>
>getfh((char *)fd, fh)
>
>works where fd is a file descriptor returned by open().

Although this is, of course,

	1) rather sleazy

and

	2) not intended to be supported indefinitely - there's a comment
	   in the source code that says:

		 * Also recognizes the old getfh() which takes a file 
		 * descriptor instead of a file name, and does the 
		 * right thing. This compatibility will go away in 5.0.
		 * It goes away because if a file descriptor refers to
		 * a file, there is no simple way to find its parent 
		 * directory.  

("5.0", at this point, probably means "the next major release, which
will be S5R4-based"), so you shouldn't actually pass file descriptors to
"getfh()" - it's just there for binary compatibility.