ref: 75c92428225428c8fde2d015f010e608a0b12f1d
dir: purgatorio/man/10/master
.TH MASTER 10.6 .SH NAME master, master.local \- list of device specifiers .SH SYNOPSIS .B /emu/port/master .br .B /emu/port/master.local .PP .B os/port/master .br .B os/port/master.local .SH DESCRIPTION Each device has a name of the form .BI # x where .I x is a single Unicode character, which represents the root of the name space served (generated) by the driver. (There can be a further .I specifier that selects a particular hierarchy within the device, but that is not relevant here.) These names allow the devices' name spaces to be added to a process's name space (see .IR sys-intro (2)), using .IR bind (1) commands, .IR sys-bind (2) operations and .IR namespace (6) files. A given character can represent only one driver in a running system, but the same character might be used by several drivers in the source tree if they are never configured into the same system (eg, different platforms or mutually-exclusive configurations). The file .B #c/drivers gives the local system's assignment (see .IR cons (3)). A list of the set of characters used across all drivers on all platforms can be found in the several .B master files. In the distribution, the .B master.local files list characters that are reserved for use by locally-written drivers. They are updated by hand at a given installation. The .B master files by contrast are generated automatically by .B emu/port/mkfile and .B os/port/mkfile from the source for all platforms and .BR master.local . In the distribution, they might include names for drivers that exist but are not distributed. .PP Except for a few fundamental drivers, the character assignment is arbitrary, can vary between installations, and is notionally subject to change (although that rarely happens). The .IR indir (3) allows referring to drivers using a longer name that is even less likely to change. .SH SEE ALSO .IR bind (1), .IR sys-intro (2), .IR indir (3), .IR namespace (6), .IR dev (10.2)