DEVFS.CONF(5)

💅 DEVFS.CONF(5) — the file formats manual page, bestie edition

okay so real talk, this is the manual page for devfs.conf — it lives in the File Formats Manual section (that's the (5) bestie, iykyk) and it's literally your boot-time devfs config glow-up guide ✨

---

🌸 NAME 🌸

devfs.conf — the boot-time devfs configuration info file. it's giving "set it and forget it" 🎀

---

✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so devfs.conf is the easy-peasy way to set ownership and permissions, or create links for devices that are available at boot. lowkey iconic behavior 💅

heads up bestie: it does NOT work for devices that get plugged in and out after the system is up and running — like, say, USB devices 🙈 no cap.

if you need ownership and permissions set for all device nodes, go see devfs.rules(5) instead. and if you want actions taken when devices are attached or detached, that's a devd.conf(5) situation. slay, different files for different vibes 🦋

Lines starting with a hash sign (‘#’) and empty lines are ignored — they simply don't exist to this file, periodt.

The lines that specify devfs.conf rules consist of three parameters separated by whitespace:

• action — the action to take for the device. and here's the cute part: the action names are only significant to the first unique character. so you can be lazy about it, it still ate 💀
• devname — the name of the device created by devfs(4).
• arg — the argument of the action.

🎀 the actions currently supported 🎀

• link — this action creates a symbolic link named arg that points to devname, the name of the device created by devfs(4). cute little shortcut, we love her 🫶
• 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). don't freestyle the format, bestie 😭
• perm — this action changes the permissions of devname. the arg parameter must be a mode as explained in chmod(1). yeah, the numbers, you know the ones 🌈

---

💖 FILES 💖

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

(the second one is literally the example copy, go peek at it 👀)

---

🦋 EXAMPLES 🦋

1. the cdrom link — to create a /dev/cdrom link that points to the first CD-ROM, the following may be added to devfs.conf:

link    cd0     cdrom

2. the owner — to set the owner of a device, the own action may be specified:

own     cd0     root:cdrom

3. the permissions — to set the permissions of a device, a perm action should be used:

perm    cd0     0660

see how tidy?? three params, whitespace-separated, no drama ✨

---

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

chmod(1), devfs(4), devd.conf(5), devfs.rules(5), chown(8)

go read those if you want the full lore 📚

---

👑 AUTHORS 👑

This manual page was written by Roland Smith <rsmith@xs4all.nl>. we stan a documentation icon 💜

---

and that's the whole thing, bestie — no notes, 10/10, ate and left no crumbs 🍓

sign-off vibes: this one came from Debian, dated May 25, 2019 💖 and the page itself is DEVFS.CONF(5) — the 5 stands for file formats, obvi. k bye, go fix your device permissions 🌸