28.1. /dev

The /dev directory contains entries for the physical devices that may or may not be present in the hardware. [1] The hard drive partitions containing the mounted filesystem(s) have entries in /dev, as a simple df shows.

bash$ df
Filesystem           1k-blocks      Used Available Use%
 Mounted on
 /dev/hda6               495876    222748    247527  48% /
 /dev/hda1                50755      3887     44248   9% /boot
 /dev/hda8               367013     13262    334803   4% /home
 /dev/hda5              1714416   1123624    503704  70% /usr
	      

Among other things, the /dev directory also contains loopback devices, such as /dev/loop0. A loopback device is a gimmick that allows an ordinary file to be accessed as if it were a block device. [2] This enables mounting an entire filesystem within a single large file. See Example 13-8 and Example 13-7.

A few of the pseudo-devices in /dev have other specialized uses, such as /dev/null, /dev/zero, /dev/urandom, /dev/sda1, /dev/udp, and /dev/tcp.

For instance:

To mount a USB flash drive, append the following line to /etc/fstab. [3]

/dev/sda1    /mnt/flashdrive    auto    noauto,user,noatime    0 0

When executing a command on a /dev/tcp/$host/$port pseudo-device file, Bash opens a TCP connection to the associated socket. [4]

Getting the time from nist.gov:

bash$ cat </dev/tcp/time.nist.gov/13
53082 04-03-18 04:26:54 68 0 0 502.3 UTC(NIST) *
	      

[Mark contributed the above example.]

Downloading a URL:

bash$ exec 5<>/dev/tcp/www.net.cn/80
bash$ echo -e "GET / HTTP/1.0\n" >&5
bash$ cat <&5
	      

[Thanks, Mark and Mihai Maties.]

#!/bin/bash
# dev-tcp.sh: /dev/tcp redirection to check Internet connection.

# Script by Troy Engel.
# Used with permission.
 
TCP_HOST=www.dns-diy.com   # A known spam-friendly ISP.
TCP_PORT=80                # Port 80 is http.
  
# Try to connect. (Somewhat similar to a 'ping' . . .) 
echo "HEAD / HTTP/1.0" >/dev/tcp/${TCP_HOST}/${TCP_PORT}
MYEXIT=$?

: <<EXPLANATION
If bash was compiled with --enable-net-redirections, it has the capability of
using a special character device for both TCP and UDP redirections. These
redirections are used identically as STDIN/STDOUT/STDERR. The device entries
are 30,36 for /dev/tcp:

  mknod /dev/tcp c 30 36

>From the bash reference:
/dev/tcp/host/port
    If host is a valid hostname or Internet address, and port is an integer
port number or service name, Bash attempts to open a TCP connection to the
corresponding socket.
EXPLANATION

   
if [ "X$MYEXIT" = "X0" ]; then
  echo "Connection successful. Exit code: $MYEXIT"
else
  echo "Connection unsuccessful. Exit code: $MYEXIT"
fi

exit $MYEXIT