From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261388AbTEAPr0 (ORCPT ); Thu, 1 May 2003 11:47:26 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261392AbTEAPrZ (ORCPT ); Thu, 1 May 2003 11:47:25 -0400 Received: from e6.ny.us.ibm.com ([32.97.182.106]:21385 "EHLO e6.ny.us.ibm.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261388AbTEAPrZ (ORCPT ); Thu, 1 May 2003 11:47:25 -0400 Date: Thu, 1 May 2003 09:01:37 -0700 From: Greg KH To: Scott Robert Ladd Cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List Subject: Re: /dev Questions Message-ID: <20030501160137.GA30141@kroah.com> References: <3EB1358C.1020808@coyotegulch.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <3EB1358C.1020808@coyotegulch.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Thu, May 01, 2003 at 10:56:12AM -0400, Scott Robert Ladd wrote: > Why does /dev include devices that do not exist? /dev is only a bunch of device nodes that knows nothing about any devices physically present in the system. devfs creates a dynamic filesystem that is managed by the kernel that only shows the devices present in the kernel at that point in time. udev attempts to manage a /dev partition from userspace by watching all of the hotplug events coming from the kernel that announce device removal and additions. Hope this helps, greg k-h