major number -- Definition

Device numbering

A major  number specifies the device driver associated  with a given device
name found in the directory /dev. COHERENT uses a device's the major number
as an index into an internal table of device-driver pointers.

Every COHERENT device has a  device number associated with it.  This device
number  is of  type  dev_t, as  defined in  <sys/types.h>. The  macro
major() in <sys/stat.h> extracts the major number from a given device
number.

See Also

device drivers,
minor number,
stat.h

© 2012 by Stephen A. Ness