The document summarizes the data structures used in UNIX version 6 to manage files and file descriptors. It shows how the inode table, file table, and per-process user file descriptor table relate to each other and allow processes to access files via file descriptors. Open system calls return a file descriptor that points to an entry in the user file descriptor table, which then points to an entry in the file table that is associated with an inode from the inode table. This allows each open file to be uniquely represented across all running processes.