Why is there a type for process ids (pid_t), but not for file descriptors (fd)?

Question

I see that pid_t is typedef'd in unistd.h, and file descriptors are defined to be int in fcntl.h. But since they are used in similar ways, wouldn't it make sense to have a typedef for file descriptors?

Answer 1

Before reading the other responses, my guess was that pid_t exists for portability reasons. In the Good Ol' Days, some Unixes had short PIDs, others had int PIDs, so you define a system-specific type for PID. I can't recall any pain involved in using int for a file descriptor, even in the very early days of 64-bitness.

Answer 2

I think that this is a difference in philosophy between the C standard (fcntl.h) and the POSIX standard (unistd.h). C has as few types as are necessary (including size_t and time_t), whereas POSIX has as many types as make code clearer (such as pid_t, gid_t, and size_t).

Answer 3

PID can be used for more functional purposes in identifying the unique process in relation to certain parameters (i.e. time, size, duration, etc), making it easier to make calls to the specific PID because the same process can occur multiple times over x amount of time. Where file descriptors don't need a type because the file in itself can easily be called by it's unique name.