Category:Device Manager: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 22:57, 10 November 2023

A device manager is a program that manages device nodes in the /dev directory. Permissions and changes in /dev are handled by it.

Alpine linux has several device managers available:

mdev (from busybox) is the default.
mdevd is standalone, compatible with mdev, more efficient.
eudev is the complex, full-featured one.

Do I need a device manager?

Yes! Even for very specific use cases you would most likely just create a custom device manager.

Pages in category "Device Manager"

The following 3 pages are in this category, out of 3 total.

E

Eudev

M

Mdev
Mdevd

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-A device manager is a program that manages [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_node device nodes] in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devfs /dev] directory. It is responsible for things like hot-plugging devices such as usb-sticks.
+A device manager is a program that manages [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_node device nodes] in the [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devfs /dev] directory. Permissions and changes in {{path|/dev}} are handled by it.
 Alpine linux has several device managers available:
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 == Do I need a device manager? ==
-{{draft|this needs to be tested on actual hardware}}
+'''Yes!''' Even for very specific use cases you would most likely just create a custom device manager.
-A device manager is strongly recommended unless you know what you are doing. It is needed if the devices (like disk or keyboard) change after the system is booted. If this is not needed at all you might consider removing the device manager.
-{{todo|device managers also set permissions of devices}}
-Device files can also be manually added using <code>mknod</code>. See <code>[https://man.archlinux.org/man/mknod.1 man 1 mknod]</code> and <code>[https://man.archlinux.org/man/partprobe.8 man 8 partprobe]</code> and [[Alpine_Linux_in_a_chroot#Method_1.b_Manual_way:_Creating_needed_nodes|manually create nodes]].
 == See Also ==
 * [[Mdev#libudev_replacement|libudev replacement]]
 * [https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Device_file Gentoo Wiki - Device file]