Date: Tue, 8 Jul 1997 19:07:31 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <199707082307.TAA02559@delorie.com>
From: DJ Delorie <dj AT delorie DOT com>
To: crough45 AT amc DOT de
CC: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
In-reply-to: <97Jul8.164038gmt+0100.16641@internet01.amc.de> (message from
	Christopher Croughton on Tue, 8 Jul 1997 15:44:50 +0100)
Subject: Re: interesting redir behavior
Precedence: bulk


> > DJ should answer that.  But AFAIK, the way `redir' works is quite common 
> > practice; I've seen many programs doing that, and OpenDOS will break all 
> > of them.  For example, Less is one of them.
> 
> Hmm.  I've always viewed that as potentially dangerous behaviour, because
> I've don't remember any O/S specification which guarantees that an open
> always gets the lowest available file descriptor.  Relying on undocumented

POSIX 1003.1 Sec 5.3.1.2 states:

  The open() function shall return a file descriptor for the named file
  that is the lowest file descriptor not currently open for that
  process.

POSIX 1003.1 Sec 5.3.1.3 states:

  Upon successful completion, the function shall open the file and
  return a nonnegative integer representing the lowest numbered unused
  file descriptor.