Enhetsfiler

Enhetsfiler, also known as device files, are special files in Unix-like operating systems that represent hardware devices. They act as an interface between user-space programs and device drivers, allowing applications to interact with hardware as if they were regular files. Instead of dealing with complex hardware-specific commands, programs can read from and write to device files to send instructions or data to devices.

These files are typically located in the /dev directory. There are two main types of device files: character devices and block devices. Character devices handle data in a stream of characters, such as a serial port or a terminal. Block devices, on the other hand, handle data in fixed-size blocks, like hard drives or SSDs. When a program performs an I/O operation on a device file, the kernel redirects this operation to the corresponding device driver, which then translates the request into hardware-specific instructions.

The concept of device files simplifies programming for hardware access. Developers do not need to know the intricate details of each hardware component. Instead, they can rely on the standardized interface provided by the device files and the kernel's device driver framework. This abstraction layer makes software development more portable and manageable across different hardware configurations.