Question 19.15

How can I recover the file name given an open stream or file descriptor?


This problem is, in general, insoluble. Under Unix, for instance, a scan of the entire disk (perhaps involving special permissions) would theoretically be required, and would fail if the descriptor were connected to a pipe or referred to a deleted file (and could give a misleading answer for a file with multiple links). It is best to remember the names of files yourself when you open them (perhaps with a wrapper function around fopen).


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