Linux device drivers...

[rpeterson at yellowbank.com (Ron Peterson)]

"Kevin M. Gleason" wrote:
> 
> I'm a little unclear on theory between the two devices. Would a
> character device
> be something like the keyboard (passing one char at a time) as
> opposed to block (that uses a buffer then passes the contents of the
> buffer)?
> I have no idea how you would use a pipe in this context.

Character devices are used for sequential data access.  Block devices,
sometimes called "random access devices", allow you to access data
out-of-order.  You might start reading a file in the middle, for
example.  Storage devices are typically block devices.

I don't understand the pipe question.

-Ron-
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