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Top Forums UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers differentiate between a file and a device Post 302200743 by nua7 on Friday 30th of May 2008 01:39:40 AM
Old 05-30-2008
The very first thing to understand is that these files are NOT the drivers for the devices. Drivers are in the kernel itself (/unix or /xenix or /stand/unix), and the files in /dev do not actually contain anything at all: they are just pointers to where the driver code can be found in the kernel. There is nothing more to it than that. These aren't programs, they aren't drivers, they are just pointers.

That also means that if the device file points at code that isn't in the kernel, it obviously is not going to work. Existence of a device file does not necessarily mean that the device code is in the kernel, and creating a device file (with mknod) does NOT create kernel code.
 

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mknod(8)						      System Manager's Manual							  mknod(8)

NAME
mknod - Creates a special file SYNOPSIS
/usr/sbin/mknod special_file [ b major_device# minor_device# | c major_device# minor_device#] /usr/sbin/mknod filename p DESCRIPTION
The mknod command makes a directory entry. The first argument is the name of the special device file. Select a name that is descriptive of the device. The mknod command has two forms. In the first form, the second argument is the b or c flag. The last two arguments are numbers specifying the major_device, which helps the operating system find the device driver code, and the minor_device, the unit drive, or line number, which may be either decimal or octal. The assignment of major device numbers is specific to each system. You can determine the device numbers by examining the conf.c system source file. If you change the contents of the conf.c file to add a device driver, you must rebuild the kernel. In the second form of mknod, you use the p flag to create named pipes (FIFOs). Only the superuser can create a character or device special file. FLAGS
Indicates that the special file corresponds to a block-oriented device (disk or tape) Indicates that the special file corresponds to a character-oriented device Creates named pipes (FIFOs) EXAMPLES
To create the special file for a new drive, /dev/disk/dsk20, with a major device number of 1 and a minor device number of 2, enter: mknod /dev/disk/dsk20 b 1 2 This command creates the special file, /dev/disk/dsk20, which is a block special file with major device number 1 and minor device number 2. To create a pipe named fifo, enter: mknod fifo p This command creates the pipe fifo, which is not necessarily in the current directory. FILES
Specifies the command path Specifies the system device numbers specification file delim off mknod(8)
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