What does the 'c' and the 'b' mean?

charlie.corder

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Good morning everyone,
I was poking around my Linux system with the 'ls' command. In the /dev section I noticed that in addition to beginning with 'l' or 'd' there were 'c' and 'b' which I had not seen before in the ls -l command. In my screenshot, the 'b' does not show up.
Hopefully someone will educate me in this area. (I have some ideas but will wait to see how close I may be in my guessing).
Thanks in advance.
OG TC

2-26-22-what_does_'c'_mean.png
 


Off the top of my head, I'm guessing that this has to do with special file types for Linux devices and such. These special files are only found in places like /dev. With that being said, I haven't bothered to look it up myself to see if I'm right.
 
Character Devices (c) which are devices which transfer data in characters also known as bytes or bits such as mice, speaker etc.
Block Devices (b) which are devices which transfer data in blocks of data such as USB, Hard Disks etc.
 
Let me see now, what was it like when I was 62? The memory was much more reliable then. I was getting ready to retire from my lifes' work - shoe repair.
Oh yeah, I could hit the golf ball much further than I can today. LOL!!! {but it's easier to shoot my age now than it was then}.
WOW!!! That was 25 years ago. I was just getting started in using computers then. My, how time flies.
 
shoe repair.

Seeing as we're off topic... While in college, I worked at a shoe shop - making women's high heeled shoes.

I was "smart" so they trained me on most of the jobs, outside of stamping and stitching. I was a 'utility' worker. As such, I'd always get called in when we made the shoes by hand. (Most shoes were built on the lines, with each operation done mostly with a dedicated machine.

Anyhow, it made me think being a cobbler wouldn't be too bad a job, other than the destroyed wrists from repetitive stress disorders. It was kinda fun lasting by hand and the only automated tool being a heel press.
 
Back in the day I did some work shearing sheep.

That's where I learned the genteel art of ......swearing.
 
Seeing as we're off topic... While in college, I worked at a shoe shop - making women's high heeled shoes.

I was "smart" so they trained me on most of the jobs, outside of stamping and stitching. I was a 'utility' worker. As such, I'd always get called in when we made the shoes by hand. (Most shoes were built on the lines, with each operation done mostly with a dedicated machine.

Anyhow, it made me think being a cobbler wouldn't be too bad a job, other than the destroyed wrists from repetitive stress disorders. It was kinda fun lasting by hand and the only automated tool being a heel press.
king of off topic but we love you anyways ! lol
 

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