Confusion over device major:minor numbering...

[Dale Scheetz <dwarf@polaris.net>]

I have been looking at the devices in /dev with the hope of understanding
what drivers I have on my machine. I have been under the (mistaken?)
understanding that major:minor numbers were supposed to be unique for each
device, yet this doesn't seem to be the case. For instance:

	1:1 belongs to both /dev/mem and /dev/ram1
	1:2 belongs to both /dev/kmem and /dev/ram2
			:
			:
	1:7 belongs to both /dev/full and dev/ram7

A different type of the same class of confusion stems from:

	8:16 is used by both /dev/sda16 and /dev/sdb

and every other scsi device overlaps in this fashion.

Can someone please releave my cluelessness and explain what "little" point
I am missing?

Thanks,

Dwarf
-- 
_-_-_-_-_-_-   Author of "The Debian User's Guide"    _-_-_-_-_-_-_-

aka   Dale Scheetz                   Phone:   1 (904) 656-9769
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      e-mail:  dwarf@polaris.net     Tallahassee, FL  32308

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