FreeBSD Handbook
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# 4.11 Devices and Device Nodes

A device is a term used mostly for hardware-related activities in a system, including disks, printers, graphics cards, and keyboards. When FreeBSD boots, the majority of what FreeBSD displays are devices being detected. You can look through the boot messages again by viewing `/var/run/dmesg.boot`.

For example, `acd0` is the first IDE CDROM drive, while `kbd0` represents the keyboard.

Most of these devices in a UNIX® operating system must be accessed through special files called device nodes, which are located in the `/dev` directory.

## 4.11.1 Creating Device Nodes

When adding a new device to your system, or compiling in support for additional devices, new device nodes must be created.

### 4.11.1.1 `DEVFS` (DEVice File System)

The device file system, or `DEVFS`, provides access to kernel's device namespace in the global file system namespace. Instead of having to create and modify device nodes, `DEVFS` maintains this particular file system for you.

See the devfs(5) manual page for more information.

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