VERITAS File System 4.1 Administrator's Guide

Quick I/O for Databases
Quick I/O Naming Convention
Chapter 11164
Quick I/O Naming Convention
To treat a file as a raw character device, Quick I/O requires a file name extension to create an
alias for a regular VxFS file. Quick I/O recognizes the alias when you add the following suffix
to a file name:
::cdev:vxfs:
Whenever an application opens an existing VxFS file with the suffix ::cdev:vxfs (the cdev
portion is an acronym for character device), Quick I/O treats the file as if it were a raw device.
For example, if the file xxx is a regular VxFS file, then an application can access xxx as a raw
character device by opening it with the name:
xxx::cdev:vxfs:
NOTE When Quick I/O is enabled, you cannot create a regular VxFS file with a name
that uses the ::cdev:vxfs: extension. If an application tries to create a
regular file named xxx::cdev:vxfs:, the create fails. If Quick I/O is not
available, it is possible to create a regular file with the ::cdev:vxfs: extension,
but this could cause problems if Quick I/O is later enabled. It is advisable to
reserve the extension only for Quick I/O files.