The Db::fd method
copies a file descriptor representative of the underlying database into
the memory referenced by fdp. A file descriptor referencing the
same file will be returned to all processes that call Db::open with
the same file argument. This file descriptor may be safely used
as an argument to the fcntl(2) and flock(2) locking
functions. The file descriptor is not necessarily associated with any of
the underlying files actually used by the access method.
The Db::fd method only supports a coarse-grained form of locking.
Applications should use the lock manager where possible.
The Db::fd method either returns a non-zero error value or throws an exception that
encapsulates a non-zero error value on failure, and returns 0 on success.
Errors
The Db::fd method may fail and throw an exception or return a non-zero error for errors specified for other Berkeley DB and C library or system methods.
If a catastrophic error has occurred, the Db::fd method may fail and either
return DB_RUNRECOVERY or throw an exception encapsulating
DB_RUNRECOVERY, in which case all subsequent Berkeley DB calls will fail
in the same way.