Re: Meaning of size of /dev/pts/ files

[RVP <rvp%SDF.ORG@localhost>]

On Mon, 25 Sep 2023, rockyhotas%firemail.cc@localhost wrote:

> The /dev/pts/ files seem to have each their own size, as if they were
> regular files. First curious fact: `ls -l' doesn't show the size in
> bytes of such files (for some reason).
>
> crw--w----  1 rockyhotas     tty  5, 129 Sep 24 21:44 129
> crw--w----  1 rockyhotas     tty  5, 154 Sep 25 07:27 154
> crw--w----  1 rockyhotas     tty  5, 160 Sep 25 07:24 160
> crw--w----  1 rockyhotas     tty  5, 174 Sep 24 21:14 174
> crw--w----  1 rockyhotas     tty  5, 175 Sep 25 07:27 175
>
> (columns are: permissions, number of hard links, user owner, group owner,
> major number, minor number, last modified date, filename)

Device special files don't have a size as you yourself point out, so

> Instead, `exa' shows their sizes:
>
> crw--w----  5,174 rockyhotas    24 Sep 21:14  174
> crw--w----  5,129 rockyhotas    24 Sep 21:44  129
> crw--w----  5,160 rockyhotas    25 Sep 07:24  160
> crw--w----  5,175 rockyhotas    25 Sep 07:27  175
> crw--w----  5,154 rockyhotas    25 Sep 07:27  154
>
> (columns are: permissions, size, user owner, last modified date, filename)

The second column is actually major,minor nos. You can verify this by
correlating the filenames in the ls -l output.

Do a `stat -x /dev/pts/...' and you should see a size of 0 for all of these.

-RVP