Linux Application Development, Second Edition

Chapter 11. Simple File Handling

Files are the most ubiquitous resource abstraction used in the Unix world. Resources such as memory, disk space, devices, and interprocess communication (IPC) channels are represented as files. By providing a uniform abstraction of these resources, Unix reduces the number of software interfaces programmers must master. The resources accessed through file operations are as follows:

regular files	The kind of files most computer users think of. They serve as data repositories that can grow arbitrarily large and allow random access. Unix files are byte-oriented—any other logical boundaries are purely application conventions; the kernel knows nothing about them.
pipes	Unix’s simplest IPC mechanism. Usually, one process ...