October 1999
Beginner to intermediate
360 pages
10h 18m
English
Content preview from Learning Debian GNU/Linux
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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 |
|---|---|
|
|
Bus mouse |
|
|
Sound card |
|
|
CD-ROM drive |
|
|
Current virtual console |
|
|
Floppy drive
( |
|
|
Streaming tape drive not supporting rewind |
|
|
Non-SCSI hard drive
( |
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