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1.1       root        1: .TH INTRO 3 
                      2: .SH NAME
                      3: intro \- introduction to the Plan 9 devices
                      4: .SH DESCRIPTION
                      5: A Plan 9
                      6: .I device
                      7: implements a file tree for client processes.
                      8: A file name beginning with a pound sign, such as
                      9: .LR #c ,
                     10: names the root of a file tree implemented by
                     11: a particular
                     12: .IR "kernel device driver"
                     13: identified by the character after the pound sign.
                     14: Such names are usually bound to conventional locations
                     15: in the name space.
                     16: For example, after
                     17: .IP
                     18: .EX
                     19: bind("#c", "/dev", MREPL)
                     20: .EE
                     21: .LP
                     22: an
                     23: .IR ls (1)
                     24: of
                     25: .B /dev
                     26: will list the files provided by the
                     27: .I console
                     28: device.
                     29: .PP
                     30: A kernel device driver is a
                     31: .I server
                     32: in the sense of the Plan 9 File Protocol, 9P (see Section 5),
                     33: but with the messages implemented by local
                     34: rather than remote procedure calls.
                     35: Also, several of the messages
                     36: .RI ( Nop ,
                     37: .IR Session ,
                     38: .IR Flush ,
                     39: and
                     40: .IR Error )
                     41: have no subroutine equivalents.
                     42: .PP
                     43: When a system call is passed a file name beginning with
                     44: .L "#"
                     45: it looks at the next character, and if that is a valid
                     46: .I device character
                     47: it performs an
                     48: .IR attach (5)
                     49: on the corresponding device to get a channel representing the
                     50: root of that device's file tree.
                     51: If there are any characters after the device character but
                     52: before the next
                     53: .L "/"
                     54: or end of string, those characters are passed as parameter
                     55: .I aname
                     56: to the attach.  For example,
                     57: .IP
                     58: .EX
                     59: #Itcp
                     60: .EE
                     61: .PP
                     62: identifies the implementation of the TCP protocol supplied by the IP device
                     63: (see
                     64: .IR ip (3)).
                     65: .PP
                     66: Each kernel device has a conventional place at which to be bound
                     67: to the name space.
                     68: The
                     69: .I SYNOPSIS
                     70: sections of the following pages includes a shell
                     71: .I bind
                     72: command to put the device in the conventional place.
                     73: Most of these binds are done automatically by
                     74: .IR init (8).
                     75: .SH SEE ALSO
                     76: .IR intro (5),
                     77: .IR intro (2)

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