A systems engineer is explaining to a trainee why tools such as mkfs and mount require a disk device node (for example, /dev/nvme0n1) to be a block device. Which statement correctly describes a property that distinguishes block devices from character devices in Linux?
The kernel provides buffered, random-access I/O in fixed-size blocks, allowing filesystems to be mounted.
They cannot be used with the read(2) or write(2) system calls.
Data is delivered to user space byte-by-byte with no caching, making them ideal for terminals.
Their device nodes are marked with a leading c when listed with ls -l.
Block devices pass through the kernel's block layer, which buffers data and allows random access to fixed-size blocks. This logic is what makes them suitable for holding filesystems that may read and write sectors out-of-order. Character devices, by contrast, present an uncached byte stream; they are used for terminals, serial ports, and similar peripherals. Device nodes for character devices begin with "c" in an ls -l listing, not with "b", and both device classes use the standard read(2) and write(2) system calls.
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