A character device is one of the simplest ways to communicate with a module in the Linux kernel. These devices are presented as special files in a /dev directory and support direct reading and writing of any data, byte by byte, like a stream.

What are character devices in Linux?

A Character (‘c’) Device is one with which the Driver communicates by sending and receiving single characters (bytes, octets). A Block (‘b’) Device is one with which the Driver communicates by sending entire blocks of data. Examples for Character Devices: serial ports, parallel ports, sounds cards.

What is character file in Linux?

In Unix-like operating systems, a device file 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 two general kinds of device files in Unix-like operating systems, known as character special files and block special files.