/dev is the location of special or device files. It is a very interesting directory that highlights one important aspect of the Linux filesystem - everything is a file or a directory. Look through this directory and you should hopefully see hda1, hda2 etc.... which represent the various partitions on the first master drive of the system. /dev/cdrom and /dev/fd0 represent your CD-ROM drive and your floppy drive. This may seem strange but it will make sense if you compare the characteristics of files to that of your hardware. Both can be read from and written to. Take /dev/dsp, for instance. This file represents your speaker device. Any data written to this file will be re-directed to your speaker. If you try 'cat /boot/vmlinuz > /dev/dsp' (on a properly configured system) you should hear some sound on the speaker. That's the sound of your kernel! A file sent to /dev/lp0 gets printed. Sending data to and reading from /dev/ttyS0 will allow you to communicate with a device attached there - for instance, your modem.
The majority of devices are either block or character devices; however other types of devices exist and can be created. In general, 'block devices' are devices that store or hold data, 'character devices' can be thought of as devices that transmit or transfer data. For example, diskette drives, hard drives and CD-ROM drives are all block devices while serial ports, mice and parallel printer ports are all character devices. There is a naming scheme of sorts but in the vast majority of cases these are completely illogical.
total 724 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Sep 28 18:06 MAKEDEV -> /sbin/MAKEDEV crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 14 Oct 7 16:26 admmidi0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 30 Oct 7 16:26 admmidi1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Oct 7 16:26 amidi -> /dev/amidi0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 13 Oct 7 16:26 amidi0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 29 Oct 7 16:26 amidi1 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 11 Oct 7 16:26 amixer0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 27 Oct 7 16:26 amixer1 drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 28 18:05 ataraid lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Oct 7 16:26 audio -> /dev/audio0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 4 Oct 7 16:26 audio0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 20 Oct 7 16:26 audio1 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 7 Mar 15 2002 audioctl lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Oct 14 22:51 cdrom -> /dev/scd1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Oct 14 22:52 cdrom1 -> /dev/scd0 crw------- 1 root tty 5, 1 Jan 19 20:47 console lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Sep 28 18:06 core -> /proc/kcore crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 10 Oct 7 16:26 dmfm0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 26 Oct 7 16:26 dmfm1 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 9 Oct 7 16:26 dmmidi0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 25 Oct 7 16:26 dmmidi1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 Oct 7 16:26 dsp -> /dev/dsp0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 3 Oct 7 16:26 dsp0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 19 Oct 7 16:26 dsp1 crw--w---- 1 root video 29, 0 Mar 15 2002 fb0 crw--w---- 1 root video 29, 1 Mar 15 2002 fb0autodetect crw--w---- 1 root video 29, 0 Mar 15 2002 fb0current crw--w---- 1 root video 29, 32 Mar 15 2002 fb1 crw--w---- 1 root video 29, 33 Mar 15 2002 fb1autodetect crw--w---- 1 root video 29, 32 Mar 15 2002 fb1current lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 13 Sep 28 18:05 fd -> /proc/self/fd brw-rw---- 1 root floppy 2, 0 Mar 15 2002 fd0 brw-rw---- 1 root floppy 2, 1 Mar 15 2002 fd1 crw--w--w- 1 root root 1, 7 Sep 28 18:06 full brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 0 Mar 15 2002 hda brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 64 Mar 15 2002 hdb brw-rw---- 1 root disk 22, 0 Mar 15 2002 hdc brw-rw---- 1 root disk 22, 64 Mar 15 2002 hdd drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 12288 Sep 28 18:05 ida prw------- 1 root root 0 Jan 19 20:46 initctl brw-rw---- 1 root disk 1, 250 Mar 15 2002 initrd drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 28 18:05 input crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 45, 128 Mar 15 2002 ippp0 crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 45, 0 Mar 15 2002 isdn0 crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 45, 64 Mar 15 2002 isdnctrl0 crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 45, 255 Mar 15 2002 isdninfo crw------- 1 root root 10, 4 Mar 15 2002 jbm crw-r----- 1 root kmem 1, 2 Sep 28 18:06 kmem brw-rw---- 1 root cdrom 24, 0 Mar 15 2002 lmscd crw------- 1 root root 10, 0 Mar 15 2002 logibm brw-rw---- 1 root disk 7, 0 Sep 28 18:06 loop0 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 7, 1 Sep 28 18:06 loop1 crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 0 Mar 15 2002 lp0 crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 1 Mar 15 2002 lp1 crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 2 Mar 15 2002 lp2 crw-r----- 1 root kmem 1, 1 Sep 28 18:06 mem lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Oct 7 16:26 midi -> /dev/midi0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 2 Oct 7 16:26 midi0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 18 Oct 7 16:26 midi1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Oct 7 16:26 mixer -> /dev/mixer0 crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 14, 0 Nov 11 16:22 mixer0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 16 Oct 7 16:26 mixer1 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 11 Oct 7 06:50 modem -> /dev/ttyLT0 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 31, 0 Mar 15 2002 mpu401data crw-rw---- 1 root audio 31, 1 Mar 15 2002 mpu401stat crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 8 Oct 7 16:26 music crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 3 Sep 28 18:06 null crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 195, 0 Jan 6 03:03 nvidia0 crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 195, 1 Jan 6 03:03 nvidia1 crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 195, 255 Jan 6 03:03 nvidiactl crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 0 Mar 15 2002 par0 crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 1 Mar 15 2002 par1 crw-rw---- 1 root lp 6, 2 Mar 15 2002 par2 -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 665509 Oct 7 16:41 pcm crw-r----- 1 root kmem 1, 4 Sep 28 18:06 port crw-rw---- 1 root dip 108, 0 Sep 28 18:07 ppp crw------- 1 root root 10, 1 Mar 15 2002 psaux crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 8 Sep 28 18:06 random crw-rw---- 1 root root 10, 135 Mar 15 2002 rtc brw-rw---- 1 root cdrom 11, 0 Mar 15 2002 scd0 brw-rw---- 1 root cdrom 11, 1 Mar 15 2002 scd1 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 0 Mar 15 2002 sda brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 1 Mar 15 2002 sda1 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 2 Mar 15 2002 sda2 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 3 Mar 15 2002 sda3 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 4 Mar 15 2002 sda4 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 16 Mar 15 2002 sdb brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 17 Mar 15 2002 sdb1 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 18 Mar 15 2002 sdb2 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 19 Mar 15 2002 sdb3 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 8, 20 Mar 15 2002 sdb4 crw-rw---- 1 root audio 14, 1 Oct 7 16:26 sequencer lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Oct 7 16:26 sequencer2 -> /dev/music lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Sep 28 18:05 stderr -> fd/2 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Sep 28 18:05 stdin -> fd/0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 4 Sep 28 18:05 stdout -> fd/1 crw-rw-rw- 1 root tty 5, 0 Sep 28 18:06 tty crw------- 1 root root 4, 0 Sep 28 18:06 tty0 crw------- 1 root root 4, 1 Jan 19 14:59 tty1 crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 62, 64 Oct 7 06:50 ttyLT0 crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 4, 64 Mar 15 2002 ttyS0 crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 4, 65 Mar 15 2002 ttyS1 crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 4, 66 Mar 15 2002 ttyS2 crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 4, 67 Mar 15 2002 ttyS3 crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 0 Mar 15 2002 ttyUSB0 crw-rw---- 1 root dialout 188, 1 Mar 15 2002 ttyUSB1 cr--r--r-- 1 root root 1, 9 Jan 19 20:46 urandom drwxr-xr-x 2 root root 4096 Sep 28 18:05 usb prw-r----- 1 root adm 0 Jan 19 14:58 xconsole crw-rw-rw- 1 root root 1, 5 Sep 28 18:06 zero
Some common device files as well as their equivalent counterparts under Windows that you may wish to remember are:
First serial port (mice, modems).
PS/2 mouse connection (mice, keyboards).
First parallel port (printers, scanners, etc).
The name DSP comes from the term digital signal processor, a specialized processor chip optimized for digital signal analysis. Sound cards may use a dedicated DSP chip, or may implement the functions with a number of discrete devices. Other terms that may be used for this device are digitized voice and PCM.
This subdirectory contains most of the USB device nodes. Device name allocations are fairly simplistic so no elaboration is be necessary.
First SCSI device (HDD, Memory Sticks, external mass storage devices such as CD-ROM drives on laptops, etc).
First SCSI CD-ROM device.
First joystick device.
Devices are defined by type, such as 'block' or 'character', and 'major' and 'minor' number. The major number is used to categorize a device and the minor number is used to identify a specific device type. For example, all IDE device connected to the primary controller have a major number of 3. Master and slave devices, as well as individual partitions are further defined by the use of minor numbers. These are the two numbers precede the date in the following display:
# ls -l /dev/hd*
brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 0 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 1 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda1 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 10 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda10 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 11 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda11 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 12 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda12 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 13 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda13 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 14 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda14 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 15 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda15 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 16 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda16 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 17 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda17 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 18 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda18 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 19 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda19 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 2 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda2 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 20 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda20 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 3 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda3 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 4 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda4 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 5 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda5 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 6 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda6 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 7 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda7 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 8 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda8 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 9 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hda9 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 64 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 65 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb1 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 74 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb10 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 75 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb11 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 76 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb12 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 77 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb13 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 78 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb14 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 79 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb15 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 80 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb16 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 81 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb17 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 82 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb18 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 83 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb19 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 66 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb2 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 84 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb20 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 67 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb3 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 68 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb4 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 69 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb5 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 70 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb6 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 71 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb7 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 72 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb8 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 3, 73 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdb9 brw-rw---- 1 root disk 22, 0 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdc brw-rw---- 1 root disk 22, 64 Mar 15 2002 /dev/hdd
The major number for both hda and hdb devices is 3. Of course, the minor number changes for each specific partition. The definition of each major number category can be examined by looking at the contents of the /usr/src/linux/include/linux/major.h file. The devices.txt also documents major and minor numbers. It is located in the /usr/src/linux/Documentation directory. This file defines the major numbers. Almost all files devices are created by default at the install time. However, you can always create a device using the mknod command or the MAKEDEV script which is located in the /dev directory itself. Devices can be created with this utility by supplying the device to be created, the device type (block or character) and the major and minor numbers. For example, let's say you have accidentally deleted /dev/ttyS0 (COM1 under Windows), it can be recreated using the following command
# mknod ttyS0 c 4 64
For those of us who are rather lazy you can simply run the MAKEDEV script as such
# MAKEDEV *
which will create all devices known.
If is possible that /dev may also contain a MAKEDEV.local for the creation of any local device files.
In general and as required by the FSSTND, MAKEDEV will have provisions for creating any device that may be found on the system, not just those that a particular implementation installs.
For those of you who are wondering why Linux is using such a primitive system to reference devices its because we haven't been able to devise a sufficiently sophisticated mechanism which provides enough advantages over the current system in order to achieve widespread adoption.
To date (as of kernel version 2.4), the best attempt has been made by Richard Gooch of the CSIRO. It's called devfsd and has been a part of the kernel for a number of years now. It has been sanctioned by the kernel developers and Linus himself and details of its implementation can be found at /usr/src/linux/Documentation/filesystems/devfs/README. Below is an excerpt from this document.
Devfs is an alternative to "real" character and block special devices on your root filesystem. Kernel device drivers can register devices by name rather than major and minor numbers. These devices will appear in devfs automatically, with whatever default ownership and protection the driver specified. A daemon (devfsd) can be used to override these defaults. Devfs has been in the kernel since 2.3.46.
NOTE that devfs is entirely optional. If you prefer the old disc-based device nodes, then simply leave CONFIG_DEVFS_FS=n (the default). In this case, nothing will change. ALSO NOTE that if you do enable devfs, the defaults are such that full compatibility is maintained with the old devices names.
There are two aspects to devfs: one is the underlying device namespace, which is a namespace just like any mounted filesystem. The other aspect is the filesystem code which provides a view of the device namespace. The reason I make a distinction is because devfs can be mounted many times, with each mount showing the same device namespace. Changes made are global to all mounted devfs filesystems. Also, because the devfs namespace exists without any devfs mounts, you can easily mount the root filesystem by referring to an entry in the devfs namespace.
The cost of devfs is a small increase in kernel code size and memory usage. About 7 pages of code (some of that in __init sections) and 72 bytes for each entry in the namespace. A modest system has only a couple of hundred device entries, so this costs a few more pages. Compare this with the suggestion to put /dev on a ramdisc.
On a typical machine, the cost is under 0.2 percent. On a modest system with 64 MBytes of RAM, the cost is under 0.1 percent. The accusations of "bloatware" levelled at devfs are not justified.
As of kernel version 2.6, devfs has been marked obsolete and has now been replaced by udev. A system very similar (at least from a the end user's point of view) to devfs but which works entirely in userspace. An overview of udev can be found at http://www.kroah.com/linux/talks/ols_2003_udev_paper/Reprint-Kroah-Hartman-OLS2003.pdf