does /dev have to be on the root partition?

geekpie · 05-11-2009, 12:46 PM

... or can /dev be on a separate partition?

jschiwal · 05-11-2009, 12:51 PM

It wouldn't make sense to create a separate partition for /dev.

Code:

jschiwal@qosmio:~> sudo du /dev                                                                                                                                                        
root's password:                                                                                                                                                                       
0       /dev/snd                                                                                                                                                                       
0       /dev/cpu                                                                                                                                                                       
0       /dev/mapper                                                                                                                                                                    
0       /dev/v4l/by-path                                                                                                                                                               
0       /dev/v4l                                                                                                                                                                       
0       /dev/.udev/failed                                                                                                                                                              
0       /dev/.udev/names/vcsa10                                                                                                                                                        
0       /dev/.udev/names/vcs10       
...

David the H. · 05-11-2009, 01:45 PM

To expand on the above.

I suppose that yes, you could theoretically put it on a different device, but why would anyone bother? For one thing, you're whole system would then depend on that drive being present. But also, since /dev is a dynamically-created directory that only contains link interfaces to various devices, it's so small that it doesn't really need a partition of its own. My entire /dev folder is listed as taking up only 43kb.

In fact, these days I believe most distros place /dev in virtual (tmpfs) ram-drives anyway.

geekpie · 05-13-2009, 07:55 AM

ok thanks.
Might be worth a point in my LPC101 exam.