What does errno 81 (EBADFD) mean?

EBADFD

Descriptor state mismatch

On Solaris, EBADFD is errno value 81. The base message is f.d. invalid for this operation, but the useful diagnostic context is narrower than the short message: Solaris rejected an operation because the file descriptor is in a bad state for that request.

Use the Solaris-specific errno table first, then compare with POSIX only for portable behavior. Some Solaris values share names with other UNIX systems but have different numbers or more specific historical meanings.

What to check

• Check whether the descriptor is open, its access mode, and whether the requested operation matches that mode.
• Oracle documents cases such as reading from a descriptor opened only for writing.
• Log descriptor lifecycle events to catch reuse after close.

References

• Oracle Solaris intro(2): error numbers
• illumos errno.h definitions
• POSIX errno.h

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