devfs(5) [freebsd man page]

DEVFS(5)						      BSD File Formats Manual							  DEVFS(5)

NAME

     devfs -- device file system

SYNOPSIS

     devfs   /dev    devfs rw 0 0

DESCRIPTION

     The device file system, or devfs, provides access to kernel's device namespace in the global file system namespace.  The conventional mount
     point is /dev.

     The file system includes several directories, links, symbolic links and devices, some of which can also be written.  In a chroot'ed environ-
     ment, devfs can be used to create a new /dev mount point.

     The mknod(8) tool can be used to recover deleted device entries under devfs.

     The fdescfs(5) filesystem is an alternate means for populating /dev/fd.  The character devices that both devfs and fdescfs(5) present in
     /dev/fd correspond to the open file descriptors of the process accessing the directory.  devfs only creates files for the standard file
     descriptors 0, 1 and 2.  fdescfs(5) creates files for all open descriptors.

     The options are as follows:

     -o options
	     Use the specified mount options, as described in mount(8).  The following devfs file system-specific options are available:

	     ruleset=ruleset
		     Set ruleset number ruleset as the current ruleset for the mount-point and apply all its rules.  If the ruleset number ruleset
		     does not exist, an empty ruleset with the number ruleset is created.  See devfs(8) for more information on working with devfs
		     rulesets.

FILES

     /dev	The normal devfs mount point.

EXAMPLES

     To mount a devfs volume located on /mychroot/dev:

	   mount -t devfs devfs /mychroot/dev

SEE ALSO

     fdescfs(5), devfs(8), mount(8)

HISTORY

     The devfs file system first appeared in FreeBSD 2.0.  It became the preferred method for accessing devices in FreeBSD 5.0 and the only method
     in FreeBSD 6.0.  The devfs manual page first appeared in FreeBSD 2.2.

AUTHORS

     The devfs manual page was written by Mike Pritchard <mpp@FreeBSD.org>.

BSD
								 February 9, 2012							       BSD

Check Out this Related Man Page

devfs(7FS)                                                         File Systems                                                         devfs(7FS)

NAME

       devfs - Devices file system

DESCRIPTION

       The devfs filesystem manages a name space of all devices under the Solaris operating environment and is mounted during boot on the /devices
       name space.

       The /devices name space is dynamic and reflects the current state of accessible devices under the Solaris operating environment. The  names
       of all attached device instances are present under /devices.

       The content under /devices is under the exclusive control of the devfs filesystem and cannot be changed.

       The system may be configured to include a device in one of two ways:

                 By means of dynamic reconfiguration (DR), using, for example, cfgadm(1M).

                 For  devices driven by driver.conf(4) enumeration, edit the driver.conf file to add a new entry, then use update_drv(1M) to cause
                 the system to re-read the driver.conf file and thereby enumerate the instance.

       The device may be attached through a number of system calls and programs, including open(2), stat(2) and ls(1). During device  attach,  the
       device  driver typically creates minor nodes corresponding to the device via ddi_create_minor_node(9F). If the attach is successful, one or
       more minor nodes referring to the device are created under /devices.

       Operations like mknod(2), mkdir(2) and creat(2) are not supported in /devices.

FILES

       /devices        Mount point for devfs file system

SEE ALSO

       devfsadm(1M), vfstab(4), attach(9E)

NOTES

       The /devices name space cannot be unmounted.

       All content at or below the /devices name space is an implementation artifact and subject to incompatible change or removal without notifi-
       cation.

SunOS 5.10                                                          26 Oct 2004                                                         devfs(7FS)

Linux and UNIX Man Pages

devfs(5) [freebsd man page]

Check Out this Related Man Page