Bash read/write file descriptors — seek to start of file

Question

I tried to use the read/write file descriptor in bash so that I could delete the file that the file descriptor referred to afterward, as such:

F=$(mktemp)
ex         


        

Answer 1

To 'rewind' the file descriptor, you can simply use /proc/self/fd/3

Test script :

#!/bin/bash

# Fill data
FILE=test
date +%FT%T >$FILE

# Open the file descriptor and delete the file
exec 5<>$FILE
rm -rf $FILE

# Check state of the file
# should return an error as the file has been deleted
file $FILE

# Check that you still can do multiple reads or additions
for i in {0..5}; do
    echo ----- $i -----

    echo . >>/proc/self/fd/5
    cat /proc/self/fd/5

    echo
    sleep 1
done

Try to kill -9 the script while it is running, you will see that contrary to what happens with the trap method, the file is actually deleted.