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Learning Debian GNU/Linux
book

Learning Debian GNU/Linux

by Bill McCarty
October 1999
Beginner to intermediate content levelBeginner to intermediate
360 pages
10h 18m
English
O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Content preview from Learning Debian GNU/Linux

How Linux Organizes Data

In order to make the most effective use of your Linux system, you must understand how Linux organizes data. If you’re familiar with Microsoft Windows or another operating system, you’ll find it easy to learn how Linux organizes data, because most operating systems organize data in rather similar ways. This section explains how Linux organizes data. It also introduces you to several important Linux commands that work with directories and files.

Devices

Linux receives data from, sends data to, and stores data on devices. A device usually corresponds to a hardware unit, such as a keyboard or serial port. However, a device may have no hardware counterpart: the kernel creates several pseudodevices that you can access as devices but that have no physical existence. Moreover, a single hardware unit may correspond to several devices—for example, Linux defines each partition of a disk drive as a distinct device. Table 4-2 describes some typical Linux devices; not every system provides all these devices and some systems provide devices not shown in the table.

Table 4-2. Typical Linux Devices

Device

Description

atibm

Bus mouse

audio

Sound card

cdrom

CD-ROM drive

console

Current virtual console

fd n

Floppy drive (n designates the drive; for example, fd0 is the first floppy drive)

ftape

Streaming tape drive not supporting rewind

hd xn

Non-SCSI hard drive (x designates the drive and n designates the partition; for example, hda1 is the first ...

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Publisher Resources

ISBN: 1565927052Supplemental ContentCatalog PageErrata