Mixing platform-specific and Common File System operations

It can sometimes be necessary or desirable to use platform-specific calls for some file system operations, despite the fact that this will result in nonportable code. Services are provided to permit cooperation between Common File System and platform-specific calls, thereby minimizing the portability costs associated with platform-specific calls.

Tip:

Mixing Common File System and platform-specific operations should only be done as a last resort when no satisfactory solution exists using portable Common File System operations. Use these facilities with extreme caution.

These operations should only be used by experts, because there are hidden pitfalls. Some platforms can have multiple valid file descriptor representations, thus some calls might not be compatible with the particular representation chosen by the CfsFileDescriptor. Furthermore, on such platforms, the possibility exists that the underlying representation might change.