[Next] [Previous] [Up] [Top] [Contents]
10.1 Special Files
10.1.1 Block and character devices
All I/O devices are classified as either block or character (raw) devices. The block special device causes the I/O to be buffered in large pieces. The character (raw) device causes I/O to occur one character (byte) at a time. Some devices, such as disks and tapes, can be both block and character devices, and must have entries for each mode. Terminals operate in character mode. The first entry in the permission field indicates either b-->block, or c-->character.
Unix System Administration - 8 AUG 1996
[Next] [Previous] [Up] [Top] [Contents]