Special Files

In UNIX, devices are treated as files. They are represented in the file system by special files. These files are advertised by the device driver and commonly reside in the /devices directory hierarchy.

Special files may be of type block or character. The type indicates which kind of device driver operates the device.

Associated with each special file is a device number. This consists of a major number and a minor number. The major number identifies the device driver associated with the special file. The minor number is created and used by the device driver to further identify the special file. Usually, the minor number is an encoding that identifies the device the driver should access and the type of access to perform. The minor number, for example, could identify a tape device requiring backup and also specify whether the tape needs to be rewound when the backup operation is complete.