# Source: devfsd # Package: devfsd # Versions: # Prioritize: 45 Description: Daemon for the device file system This daemon sets up the devfs file system for use. It sets permissions of devices, and creates compatibility symlinks to the old names when devices are created by drivers. It further tries to load the appropriate drivers automatically when not yet existing devices are accessed. . devfs is a virtual file system (it is not stored on a disc, instead it reflects the contents of kernel data structures) introduced in Linux 2.4 kernels to counter the explosive growth of the number of device nodes in /dev. devfs is mounted on /dev and displays all devices exported by _loaded_ kernel modules. MAKEDEV is no more needed. It is particularly helpful if you - have lots and lots of devices (USB, SCSI, etc) - do hot-plugging (adding and removing devices on the running system) . You need to have devfs mounted at boot for this to work. If you don't, your system will keep working as before (with normal on-disc device files). See README.Debian for hints on how to do this. . Your system will work perfectly well without devfs, it is by no means a requirement. Alternatives for devfs are: - common on-disk device files. This is what you get by default. - udev (see the udev package, requires a 2.6 Linux kernel). Description-eo: . . . # other Descriptions of the devfsd package with a translation in eo: #