ref: 02ac617541ca1a7bf82b1615fb5a58235469b5d3
dir: /man/3/0intro/
.TH INTRO 3 .SH NAME intro \- introduction to the Inferno devices .SH DESCRIPTION An Inferno .I device implements a file tree for client processes. A file name beginning with a hash (number) symbol, such as .LR #c , names the root of a file tree implemented by a particular .IR "kernel device driver" identified by the character after the hash. Such names are usually bound to conventional locations in the name space. For example, after .IP .EX sys->bind("#c", "/dev", sys->MREPL) .EE .LP an .IR ls (1) of .B /dev will list the files provided by the .I console device. .PP A kernel device driver is a .I server in the sense of the Inferno File Protocol, 9P (see Section 5), but with the messages implemented by local rather than remote procedure calls. Also, several of the messages .RI ( Nop , .IR Flush , and .IR Error ) have no subroutine equivalents. .PP When a system call is passed a file name beginning with .L "#" it looks at the next character, and if that is a valid .I device character it performs an .IR attach (5) on the corresponding device to get a channel representing the root of that device's file tree. If there are any characters after the device character but before the next .L "/" or end of string, those characters are passed as parameter .I aname to the attach. .PP Each kernel device has a conventional place at which to be bound to the name space. The .I SYNOPSIS sections of the following pages includes a shell .I bind command to put the device in the conventional place. Most of these binds are done automatically by the system when it initializes; see .IR init (8). .SH SEE ALSO .IR intro (5), .IR intro (2)