Device drivers, special files and the device database
Each physical mass storage device is supported by the following
software.
device drivers-
are programs that manage the signals between devices and the operating system.
These include both target drivers and HBA drivers.
You can use the drivers provided with the system or write your own.
For the most current list of device drivers and supported hardware see
``Accessing the SCO Compatible Hardware Web Pages''.
For instructions on writing your own device drivers, see
Developing DDI kernel drivers.
device special files-
are files that link devices to the appropriate device drivers.
These files define devices to the kernel:
how your system interacts with a device
is determined by attributes of the device special file.
These attributes are the name of the file
(which serves as the name of the device),
and the major and minor device numbers of the device special file.
DDB-
The Device Database, /etc/device.tab, is a
database in which the system keeps a list of attributes about each device
on your system.
The entry for each device includes a device alias (a name unique in
the database that is mapped to the pathname of the device it represents)
and values for a set of attributes.
You can list the device attributes using the
devattr(1M)
command.
When a new storage device is added to the system,
the device database is automatically updated--you
do not need to modify anything by hand.
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Mass storage device names
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Physical devices
© 2004 The SCO Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
UnixWare 7 Release 7.1.4 - 22 April 2004