DEVFS.CONF(5)

NAME
devfs.conf - boot-time devfs configuration information

DESCRIPTION
The devfs.conf file provides an easy way to set ownership and permissions, or create links for devices available at boot.

It does not work for devices plugged in and out after the system is up and running, e.g. USB devices. See devfs.rules(5) for setting ownership and permissions for all device nodes, and devd.conf(5) for actions to be taken when devices are attached or detached.

Lines starting with a hash sign (‘#’) and empty lines are ignored. The lines that specify devfs.conf rules consist of three parameters separated by whitespace:

action
    The action to take for the device. The action names are only significant to the first unique character.

devname
    The name of the device created by devfs(5).

arg The argument of the action.

The actions currently supported are:

link
    This action creates a symbolic link named arg that points to devname, the name of the device created by devfs(5).

own This action changes the ownership of devname. The arg parameter must be in the form of an owner:group pair, in the same format used by chown(8).

perm
    This action changes the permissions of devname. The arg parameter must be a mode as explained in chmod(1).

FILES
/etc/devfs.conf
/usr/share/examples/etc/devfs.conf

EXAMPLES
To create a /dev/cdrom link that points to the first SCSI(4) CD-ROM, the following may be added to devfs.conf:

    link	cd0	cdrom

Similarly, to link /dev/cdrom to the first SCSI CD-ROM device, the following action may be used:

    link	cd0	cdrom

To set the owner of a device, the own action may be specified:

    own	cd0	root:cdrom

To set the permissions of a device, a perm action should be used:

    perm	cd0	0660

SEE ALSO
chmod(1), devd.conf(5), devfs(5), devfs.rules(5), chown(8)

AUTHORS
This manual page was written by Roland Smith <rsmith@xs4all.nl>.