[ale] Assigning devices...

[maltzen at mm.com (Gary Maltzen)]

This question caught my attention today.

When RH60 installs /dev/modem on our system, rather than creating a symlink to ttyS2, it creates a new character device.

crw-rw-rw-  1  root  uucp   4   66  modem
crw-rw-rw-  1  root  uucp   4   66  ttyS2

What are the implications of doing that versus a hard link

crw-rw-rw-  2  root  uucp   4   66  modem
crw-rw-rw-  2  root  uucp   4   66  ttyS2

versus a symlink

lrwxrwxrwx  1  root  uucp        9  modem -> ttyS2
crw-rw-rw-  1  root  uucp   4   66  ttyS2

with regard to minicom, kermit and pppd ?