“For as long as I can remember, the /dev directory has been
around on all Unix systems.”
“And, for as long as I can remember, I knew that it was best not
to touch that directory because it doesn’t just contain regular
files, but device drivers for all the devices on the system.”
“I learned that the hard way on an early Solaris server back in
the 1980s. Being short on disk space, I decided to go and weed out
the device drivers not needed for my particular machine. It turned
out I deleted, by mistake, a disk driver needed to bring up the
server. The professor at the school made it clear that I should
NEVER mess with the /dev directory, unless I was a kernel hacker or
the professor.”
“Nowadays, I am a kernel hacker, but I still feel reluctant to
touch the /dev directory. Why is the /dev directory so
important?”
Web Webster has more than 20 years of writing and editorial experience in the tech sector. He’s written and edited news, demand generation, user-focused, and thought leadership content for business software solutions, consumer tech, and Linux Today, he edits and writes for a portfolio of tech industry news and analysis websites including webopedia.com, and DatabaseJournal.com.
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