[Sderby] What does dev mean (/dev/hda1) ?

[Russ]

Thanks all.

many thanks thats starting to sink in, i asked because im starting to play 
with Knoppix, but as im new to Linux i wanted to learn basic command, im 
thinking if i can get some of the basic command to sink in, i will find 
using/playing with Linux easier.

Thanks Russ
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Dave Voorhis" <dave at armchair.mb.ca>
To: "South Derby LUG General Mailing List" <sderby at mailman.lug.org.uk>
Sent: Sunday, October 31, 2004 6:34 PM
Subject: Re: [Sderby] What does dev mean (/dev/hda1) ?


> On Fri, 2004-10-29 at 17:32, Russ wrote:
>
>> Just a simple daft question, as a total low level new comer to cmd
>> line stuff sort of bloke, what does "/dev" mean and do when in a line
>> like this - "mount /dev/hda1/ mnt" ?
>
> /dev is a directory that contains the device drivers for your hardware.
> In UNIX and UNIX-like systems, devices (and everything else!) look just
> like files.  This allows the real data files and devices (implemented as
> virtual files) to be accessed using the same programmatic mechanisms.
> It is a powerful concept, as it allows files and devices to be used
> interchangeably in many applications.
>
>> From looking on the net i found this /dev/null - a virtual device, is
>> that what /dev is.
>
> You're close.  /dev/null is a virtual device; /dev is a directory full
> of virtual devices.  /dev/hda1 refers to the 'hda1' device, which is a
> hard disk partition.  It can be accessed just like a file, but you
> normally shouldn't do so (and Linux won't let you unless you're root)
> unless you're a programmer who wishes to create utilities like 'mount'.
>
> For most purposes, it's sufficient to know that /dev/hda1 is another way
> of saying "Partition 1 on the first IDE hard drive."  /dev/null is
> another way of saying "A file to which I can write and automatically
> throw away the data without storing it."  /dev/cdrom is another way of
> saying "The default CDROM drive", and so on.
>
> Dave...
>
>
>
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