difference between character devices vs Terminal devices vs Streams

Question

Hello guys,

I am unable to figure out the exact difference between character devices vs Terminal devices vs Streams. Any help is very much appreciated.

Thanks & Regards,

Mousey.

Answer 1

Character devices are those which transmit one character at a time and are used for "stream" based I/O. Examples are modems, keyboards, mouse etc. They do not allow random access on data.

Streams - It is the communication framework of unix. it provides full-duplex mode of communication. Character special files, named pipes, and sockets are actually streams and not files.

Terminal devices - Not sure what you mean by "terminal devices". But I think you are refering to TTYs or tele-typewritters or computer terminals (monitors). Please be clear on this.