[Techtalk] /dev/shm

[David Sumbler]

Angelina Carlton <brat at magma.ca> writes:

> David Sumbler <david at aeolia.co.uk> writes:
>
>> In my /etc/fstab file is a line which reads:
>>
>> none         /dev/shm tmpfs    defaults  0 0
>>
>> I assume that line was added by my Fedora Core 4 system (or its
>> version 2 predecessor), because I'm sure I didn't!
>>
>> 'df' reports
>>
>> none         tmpfs    316M     0  316M   0% /dev/shm
>>
>> And 'ls -ld /dev/shm' gives
>>
>> drwxrwxrwt  2 root root 40 Jan  8 16:39 /dev/shm
>>
>> the time being when I last rebooted the computer, I think.  /dev/shm
>> itself is empty, currently at any rate.
>>
>> What is this, what is it used for, and by what?
>>
> I think it came along with the 2,4 kernels, you can find some info here:
> http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/library/l-fs3.html
> http://lwn.net/2001/1206/a/tmpfs.php3

Thanks - two very helpful links.  Now I know the answer!

David

-- 

david at aeolia.co.uk