Interface to a device driver that appears in a file system as if it were an ordinary file; e.g. /dev/* in Unix-like systems; CON, PRN, NUL in DOS/Windows
Also known as special file · device file system · device node · device special file
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In Unix-like operating systems, a device file, device node, or special file is an interface to a device driver that appears in a file system as if it were an ordinary file. There are also special files in DOS, OS/2, and Windows. These special files allow an application program to interact with a device by using its device driver via standard input/output system calls. Using standard system calls simplifies many programming tasks, and leads to consistent user-space I/O mechanisms regardless of device features and functions.