Re: fdisk and files in /dev

On 2006-09-05, scott@xxxxxxxxxx <scott@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi,

When I create a new partitiion in, the device file in /dev doesn't show up
until I reboot. For example, if I create a partition hda6, then /dev/hda6
isn't there until I reboot. Is there some command that's used to
automatically update the files in /dev ?

This is using the 2.6 kernel under RHEL4.

Lately, the fashionable thing to do for /dev is to use a
program to generate a fake filesystem for it to reduce the
large number of unneeded entries that the old static scheme
used to require. With Mandriva, devfs used to manage /dev,
but udev has replaced it. I suspect RHEL uses one of those
two, but I'm not certain.

If you find your system uses udev, you might try restarting
udev. However, I'm not sure that will see new partitions on
a fixed disk. Except for hotplugging, rearranging disk
partitions isn't normally an everyday occurrence, so it
might not be handled if it were an everyday thing.

On an unrelated note, I'm doing some experimental work, and I've noticed
that files that I create in /dev disappear on reboot. Is there some way to
make them stick around?

Because /dev isn't stored on real rotating magnetic media,
nothing in it persists across a reboot. In theory, most
everything you need in /dev should be created by devfs or
udev (or whatever your system uses). There are some
configuration files that can be tweaked if needed, but I
don't have direct experience doing that. Worst case, you
could put something in /etc/rc.local to adjust things in
/dev to your liking. (That's what I do to make or adjust
symlinks for /dev/cdrom, /dev/cdwriter, and /dev/modem.

--
Robert Riches
spamtrap42@xxxxxxxxxxx
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)
.

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