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DEVD(8)			    System Manager's Manual		       DEVD(8)

NAME
       devd -- device state change daemon

SYNOPSIS
       devd [-Ddn]

DESCRIPTION
       The  devd daemon	provides a way to have userland	programs run when cer-
       tain kernel events happen.

       The following options are accepted.

       -D      Enable debugging	messages.

       -d      Run in the foreground instead of	becoming a daemon.

       -n      Do not process all pending events  before  becoming  a  daemon.
	       Instead,	call daemon right away.

IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
       The devd	utility	is a system daemon that	runs in	the background all the
       time.   Whenever	 a device is added to or removed from the device tree,
       devd will execute actions specified in devd.conf(5).  For example, devd
       might execute dhclient(8) when an Ethernet adapter is added to the sys-
       tem, and	kill the dhclient(8) instance when the	same  adapter  is  re-
       moved.	Another	example	would be for devd to use a table to locate and
       load via	kldload(8) the proper driver for an unrecognized  device  that
       is added	to the system.

       The  devd  utility hooks	into the devctl(4) device driver.  This	device
       driver has hooks	into the device	configuration system.  When nodes  are
       added  or  deleted  from	the tree, this device will deliver information
       about the event to devd.	 Once devd has parsed  the  message,  it  will
       search  its  action  list for that kind of event	and perform the	action
       with the	highest	matching value.	 For most mundane  uses,  the  default
       handlers	 are adequate.	However, for more advanced users, the power is
       present to tweak	every aspect of	what happens.

       The devd	utility	reads /etc/devd.conf and uses that file	to  drive  the
       rest  of	 the  process.	 While the format of this file is described in
       devd.conf(5), some basics are covered here.  In	the  options  section,
       one  can	 define	 multiple directories to search	for config files.  All
       files in	these directories whose	names match  the  pattern  *.conf  are
       parsed.	 These	files are intended to be installed by third party ven-
       dors that wish to hook into  the	 devd  system  without	modifying  the
       user's other config files.

       All messages that devd receives are forwarded to	the Unix domain	socket
       at /var/run/devd.pipe.

SEE ALSO
       devctl(4), devd.conf(5)

AUTHORS
       M. Warner Losh

FreeBSD	6.0		       October 17, 2002			       DEVD(8)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=devd&manpath=FreeBSD+6.0-RELEASE+and+Ports>

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