Question

Say I have 2 processes, ProcessA and ProcessB. If I perform int fd=open(somefile) in ProcessA, can I then pass the value of file descriptor fd over IPC to ProcessB and have it manipulate the same file?

Answer 1

You can pass a file descriptor to another process over unix domain sockets.
Here’s the code to pass such a file descriptor, taken from Unix Network Programming

ssize_t
write_fd(int fd, void *ptr, size_t nbytes, int sendfd)
{
    struct msghdr   msg;
    struct iovec    iov[1];

#ifdef  HAVE_MSGHDR_MSG_CONTROL
    union {
      struct cmsghdr    cm;
      char              control[CMSG_SPACE(sizeof(int))];
    } control_un;
    struct cmsghdr  *cmptr;

    msg.msg_control = control_un.control;
    msg.msg_controllen = sizeof(control_un.control);

    cmptr = CMSG_FIRSTHDR(&msg);
    cmptr->cmsg_len = CMSG_LEN(sizeof(int));
    cmptr->cmsg_level = SOL_SOCKET;
    cmptr->cmsg_type = SCM_RIGHTS;
    *((int *) CMSG_DATA(cmptr)) = sendfd;
#else
    msg.msg_accrights = (caddr_t) &sendfd;
    msg.msg_accrightslen = sizeof(int);
#endif

    msg.msg_name = NULL;
    msg.msg_namelen = 0;

    iov[0].iov_base = ptr;
    iov[0].iov_len = nbytes;
    msg.msg_iov = iov;
    msg.msg_iovlen = 1;

    return(sendmsg(fd, &msg, 0));
}
/* end write_fd */

And here’s the code to receive the file descriptor

ssize_t
read_fd(int fd, void *ptr, size_t nbytes, int *recvfd)
{
    struct msghdr   msg;
    struct iovec    iov[1];
    ssize_t         n;
    int             newfd;

#ifdef  HAVE_MSGHDR_MSG_CONTROL
    union {
      struct cmsghdr    cm;
      char              control[CMSG_SPACE(sizeof(int))];
    } control_un;
    struct cmsghdr  *cmptr;

    msg.msg_control = control_un.control;
    msg.msg_controllen = sizeof(control_un.control);
#else
    msg.msg_accrights = (caddr_t) &newfd;
    msg.msg_accrightslen = sizeof(int);
#endif

    msg.msg_name = NULL;
    msg.msg_namelen = 0;

    iov[0].iov_base = ptr;
    iov[0].iov_len = nbytes;
    msg.msg_iov = iov;
    msg.msg_iovlen = 1;

    if ( (n = recvmsg(fd, &msg, 0)) <= 0)
        return(n);

#ifdef  HAVE_MSGHDR_MSG_CONTROL
    if ( (cmptr = CMSG_FIRSTHDR(&msg)) != NULL &&
        cmptr->cmsg_len == CMSG_LEN(sizeof(int))) {
        if (cmptr->cmsg_level != SOL_SOCKET)
            err_quit("control level != SOL_SOCKET");
        if (cmptr->cmsg_type != SCM_RIGHTS)
            err_quit("control type != SCM_RIGHTS");
        *recvfd = *((int *) CMSG_DATA(cmptr));
    } else
        *recvfd = -1;       /* descriptor was not passed */
#else
/* *INDENT-OFF* */
    if (msg.msg_accrightslen == sizeof(int))
        *recvfd = newfd;
    else
        *recvfd = -1;       /* descriptor was not passed */
/* *INDENT-ON* */
#endif

    return(n);
}
/* end read_fd */