title: What is the difference between an open file and inode?
body: <p>I'm reading Linux Device Driver programming 3rd edition and I've been trying to get a grasp of openfiles vs inodes. From what the book says , "a file structure in the kernel is considered to be an open file." The book also says ,"an inode structure is used internally in the kernel to represent files. Therefor it is different from a file structure which is used to represent an open file." That statement in itself is totally confusing to me since a file and an open file is the same thing in my mind. I don't even understand what they mean by an open file in this context. I'm totally confused, what is an open file? What is an inode? And what is the difference?</p>