devfsd

{{Refimprove|date=June 2011}}

{{Lowercase title}}

{{Infobox Software

|name = devfsd

|logo =

|screenshot =

|caption =

|collapsible =

|author =

|developer = Richard Gooch

|released =

|frequently_updated =

|programming language =

|operating system = Linux kernel

|discontinued = yes

|platform =

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|genre = daemon

|license = GNU General Public License (GPL)

|website = {{URL|http://www.safe-mbox.com/~rgooch/linux/}}

}}

devfsd is a device manager for the Linux kernel. Primarily, it creates device nodes in the {{mono|/dev}} directory when kernel drivers make the underlying hardware accessible.{{cite web |url=http://www.safe-mbox.com/~rgooch/linux/docs/devfs.html |author=Richard Gooch |title=Linux Devfs (Device File System) FAQ. |date=20 August 2002 |accessdate=2011-06-21}} The nodes exist in a virtual device file system named devfs. In systems that support many different types of hardware, each of which has its own device nodes, this is more convenient than creating all possible device nodes beforehand and in a real filesystem.

While devfs was a step forward, it had several disadvantages of its own.{{cite web |url=http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev_vs_devfs |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110411233322/http://kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/udev_vs_devfs |title=udev and devfs - The final word |accessdate=2014-05-10 |archivedate=2011-04-11 |format=Plain text |author=Greg Kroah-Hartman}} Since version 2.5 of the Linux kernel, devfs has been succeeded by udev and devtmpfs.{{cite web

| url = https://lwn.net/Articles/331818/

| title = The return of devfs

| date = 2009-05-06 | accessdate = 2015-11-22

| author = Jake Edge | publisher = LWN.net

}}