Types Of Files In Linux 2

This is the 2nd Part of this title. 1st Part you can catch from here
http://lionsit.blogspot.com/2014/10/types-of-files-in-linux.html

Special Files

Most of the System file in Linux are special files are typically associated with input/output device and are found in the standard Linux directories, such as  /dev and /etc . User Cannot Alter special files.

Linux supports the following types of special files:

• Character Device files
• Block Device Files
• Hard Links
• Symbolic Links

Character Device Files

Read and write data one character at a time. A modem is an example of a character device file.Character device are also called Sequentially access device.

Block Device File

Can Access a block of data at a time, Generally a block of data can be either 512 or 1024 bytes. Here, the kernel reads or write minimum one block of data at a time.The Kernel collects the data in the memory for the amount of block memory and then makes iti available to user. Such Devices Allow Random Access. This makes input output operations faster 

Eg :Hard Disk

Many of Devices can act as character device or block device depending on the command that is used access the devices.

Hard Links

Special files that allow a single file to have multiple names You can have a hard link file only for a file not a directory.directory. These links are known as hard links because they create a direct link to an inode. Since each file System has its own inode information database,you can hard link files only when there on the same file System;

Symbolic Links

Also known as Soft Links, are similar to hard links except they can work across different file Systems