On Thu, 05 Aug 2004 07:35:09 -0500, Les Mikesell <les@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > A more fundamental question: does anyone know why Linux uses > pseudo devices for networking instead of having real names > in /dev with associated permissions and inodes connected > to drivers by major/minor numbers? It seems odd not to > be able to control access to /dev/tcp by group permisions > like you can every other device. Because network devices aren't easily manipulated using the standard UNIX "everything is a file" methodology. They are packet-oriented, as opposed to character- or block-oriented and as such, the normal read()/write()/close()/etc suite of system calls doesn't make sense for network devices (therefore, there's no reason to have a /dev file for them). Also, network devices push packets towards the kernel asynchronously (as far as the kernel's concerned, anyway); chrdev/blkdev devices do so in response to some kind of request. No UNIX(-alike) that I know of has /dev files that correspond to network devices. -- [ Tobias DiPasquale ] 0x636f6465736c696e67657240676d61696c2e636f6d
