“Everything is a file” is what made me start understanding linux few years ago and from there it got easier to use with each new concept.

Still this was really revolutionary to me when I first heard it. Made a bunch of things just click.

  • verstra
    13·
    12 days ago

    It could be a process, which you can talk to only via an IPC call. For example, dbus

      • verstra
        3·
        11 days ago

        Yea, but socket is not a file. Maybe if you stretch the definition.

        Well in any case, when people say that linux is great because everything is a file, they either mean that:

        • they can edit configuration of most things with a text editor, or that
        • in bash (and other shells) it is easy to work with byte streams, piping them from one process to another and compose complex behaviour from simple commands.