Category:Device Manager: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 23:17, 10 November 2023

A device manager is a program that manages device files 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 a complex, full-featured one.

Not available is udev since it depends on systemd which is not available on alpine. Use eudev instead.

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 4 pages are in this category, out of 4 total.

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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 hot-plugging devices such as usb-sticks.
+A device manager is a program that manages [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Device_file device files] 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:
 * '''[[mdev]]''' (from {{pkg|busybox}}) is the default.
 * '''[[mdevd]]''' is standalone, compatible with mdev, more efficient.
-* '''[[eudev]]''' is the complex, full-featured one.
+* '''[[eudev]]''' is a complex, full-featured one.
+Not available is udev since it depends on systemd which is not available on alpine. Use [[eudev]] instead.
 == 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.
-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]