INTRO(7)                                                 INTRO(7)



     NAME
          intro - introduction to special files

     DESCRIPTION
          This section describes various special files that refer to
          specific hardware peripherals, and UNIX system device
          drivers.  STREAMS [see intro(2)] software drivers, modules
          and the STREAMS-generic set of ioctl(2) system calls are
          also described.

          For hardware related files, the names of the entries are
          generally derived from names for the hardware, as opposed to
          the names of the special files themselves.  Characteristics
          of both the hardware device and the corresponding UNIX
          system device driver are discussed where applicable.

          Disk device file names are in the following format:

          /dev/{r}dsk/<device-type><controller-#>d<drive-#>{s<slice-#>|vh|vol}

          where r indicates a raw interface to the disk, the <device-
          type> indicates the type of device, <controller-#> indicates
          the controller number, <drive-#> indicates the device
          attached to the controller (drive number) and <slice-#>
          indicates the section number of the partitioned device.
          Certain sections have alternate names, namely vh for the
          volume header and vol for the entire volume: header, defects
          and all.

          Tape device file names are in the following format:

          /dev/{r}mt/<device-type><controller-#>d<slave-#>{nr}{.density}

          where r indicates a raw interface to the disk, the <device-
          type> identifies the type of device that the tape is,
          <controller-#> indicates the controller number, <slave-#>
          indicates the device attached to the controller (slave
          number), nr indicates a non rewinding interface, and density
          optionally specifies the media density, where appropriate.
          For devices with only one density setting, density may be
          ommitted.  The ``.'' is used to keep the <slave-#> visually
          merging with the density.

     SEE ALSO
          prtvtoc(1M)
          Disk/Tape Management in the System Administrator's Guide.

     ORIGIN
          AT&T V.3






     Page 1                                        (last mod. 8/20/87)