Is /dev/hda a filesystem?

bala1486 · 03-26-2010, 11:23 AM

Hello,
When i type the df command i see that /dev/hda1 as a filesytem that is mounted at '/'(root). Is /dev/hda1 a filesystem. I thought that it is a partition on my hard disk that contains the root file system. Can anybody please explain this?

Thanks,
Bala

kirukan · 03-26-2010, 11:28 AM

hda is a device(disk drive) in your system the root mounted with hda1 partition. root is a parent directory in linux based system.
#df -T will output the file system(ext2, ext3 etc)

saagar · 03-26-2010, 11:08 PM

bala,
The term filesystem is used for so many things in linux and it is confusing too.
/ is a filesystem.
ext3, ext2, FAT32, ntfs is also called filesystem (type)
A formatted partition too is called a filesystem and when the partition is formatted with ext3 or ext4 and mounted to a directory, say /data, then /data is also called a filesystem.(parent directory).
I hope I have confused you more....

DavidMcCann · 03-27-2010, 01:21 PM

A file system is a place where you can send and recover data. A device like a CD-ROM or a USB port is also a place where you can send and recover data. The inventors of Unix had the bright idea that you could treat them in the same way, so /dev is how the OS finds devices that handle data, by treating them as if they were files.

MTK358 · 03-27-2010, 01:22 PM

/dev/hda1 is not a filesystem. It's a partition, which may or may not be formatted with a filesystem (but for almost all practical uses, it is).