[Python-Dev] Inherance of file descriptor and handles on Windows (PEP 446) (original) (raw)

Paul Moore p.f.moore at gmail.com
Wed Jul 24 08:29:44 CEST 2013

On 23 July 2013 23:45, Victor Stinner <victor.stinner at gmail.com> wrote:

Said differently: the HANDLEFLAGINHERIT flag only has an effect on handles, as indicated in its name. On Windows, file descriptors are never inherited (are always closed) in child processes. I don't think that it is possible to inherit file descriptors on Windows.

That is correct - handles are the OS-level concept, fds are implemented in the CRT. So code that uses raw Windows APIs to create a new process won't have any means to inherit fds.

The fix would be simpler if Python would provide the handle of a file object (ex: in a method) and if open() supported opening a handle as it does with file descriptors on UNIX.

That would give a similar level of functionality to Unix. Whether it is used sufficiently often to be worth it, is a separate question, of course...

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