> I spent the last half hour googling with no success. What does the "b" > mean and how is it controlled? > > [root at box10 bobg]# ll /dev/sdb* > brw-rw----. 1 root disk 8, 16 Sep 23 14:36 /dev/sdb brw-rw----. 1 root > disk 8, 17 Sep 23 14:36 /dev/sdb1 > > Bob The first character is the file type. A 'b' indicates a block device