.TH INTRO 3 .SH NAMEintro \- introduction to the Inferno devices.SH DESCRIPTIONAn Inferno.I deviceimplements a file tree for client processes.A file name beginning with a hash (number) symbol, such as.LR #c ,names the root of a file tree implemented bya particular.IR "kernel device driver"identified by the character after the hash.Such names are usually bound to conventional locationsin the name space.For example, after.IP.EXsys->bind("#c", "/dev", sys->MREPL).EE.LPan.IR ls (1)of.B /devwill list the files provided by the.I consoledevice..PPA kernel device driver is a.I serverin the sense of the Inferno File Protocol, Styx (see Section 5),but with the messages implemented by localrather than remote procedure calls.Also, several of the messages.RI ( Nop ,.IR Flush ,and.IR Error )have no subroutine equivalents..PPWhen a system call is passed a file name beginning with.L "#"it looks at the next character, and if that is a valid.I device characterit performs an.IR attach (5)on the corresponding device to get a channel representing theroot of that device's file tree.If there are any characters after the device character butbefore the next.L "/"or end of string, those characters are passed as parameter.I anameto the attach..PPEach kernel device has a conventional place at which to be boundto the name space.The.I SYNOPSISsections of the following pages includes a shell.I bindcommand to put the device in the conventional place.Most of these binds are done automatically by the system when it initializes;see.IR init (8)..SH SEE ALSO.IR intro (5),.IR intro (2)