Category:Device Manager
A device manager is a program that manages device nodes in the /dev directory. It is responsible for things like hot-plugging devices such as usb-sticks.
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?
 this needs to be tested on actual hardware |
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 mknod. See man 1 mknod and man 8 partprobe and manually create nodes.