{"id":6634,"date":"2015-07-05T15:29:56","date_gmt":"2015-07-05T15:29:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/virtual-device\/"},"modified":"2015-07-23T15:45:18","modified_gmt":"2015-07-23T15:45:18","slug":"virtual-device","status":"publish","type":"definition","link":"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12632\/virtual-device","title":{"rendered":"Virtual Device"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span id=\"what_does_virtual_device_mean\">What Does Virtual Device Mean?<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A virtual device, in operating systems like Unix or Linux, refers to a device file that has no associated hardware. This type of file can be created with the <em>mknod<\/em> command, for instance. A virtual device mimics a physical hardware device when, in fact, it exists only in software form. Therefore, it makes the system believe that a particular hardware exists when it really does not.<\/p>\n<p>A virtual device is also known as a virtual peripheral<span class=\"redactor-invisible-space\">.<\/span>\n<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"techopedia_explains_virtual_device\">Techopedia Explains Virtual Device<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>As the name suggests, a virtual device is present as an abstract form, that is, without any concrete hardware accompanying it. Virtual devices are generally used to fix an error in the operating system. For example, a bug or virus can be detected by supposing an external device is monitoring it. Initially, the command <i>mknod<\/i> was used to produce the character and block devices that populate the &#8220;\/dev\/&#8221; directory. But now the <i>udev<\/i> device manager automatically creates and destroys device nodes in the virtual file system. The supposed hardware (virtual device) is detected by the kernel, but, actually, it is only a file\/directory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What Does Virtual Device Mean? A virtual device, in operating systems like Unix or Linux, refers to a device file that has no associated hardware. This type of file can be created with the mknod command, for instance. A virtual device mimics a physical hardware device when, in fact, it exists only in software form. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7813,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"definitioncat":[217,230],"class_list":["post-6634","definition","type-definition","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","definitioncat-hardware","definitioncat-privacy-and-compliance"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.2 (Yoast SEO v24.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>What is a Virtual Device? - Definition from Techopedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Virtual Device and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Virtual Device\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This definition explains the meaning of Virtual Device and why it matters.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12632\/virtual-device\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Techopedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/techopedia\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-07-23T15:45:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@techopedia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12632\/virtual-device#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12632\/virtual-device\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Margaret Rouse\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#\/schema\/person\/f5dd538e31ee352d105b8af36c4268a5\"},\"headline\":\"Virtual Device\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-07-05T15:29:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-07-23T15:45:18+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12632\/virtual-device\"},\"wordCount\":191,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/#organization\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12632\/virtual-device#respond\"]}],\"articleSection\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12632\/virtual-device\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.techopedia.com\/definition\/12632\/virtual-device\",\"name\":\"What is a Virtual Device? 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