Device mapper
Okay, so imagine you have a bunch of toy blocks of different shapes and sizes. You want to put them together to make a bigger, more complicated toy. But you don't want to glue them together because then you can't take them apart later.
So instead, you use a special device called a "mapper". This mapper lets you stack the blocks on top of each other in a certain order, to make the bigger toy you want. But when you're done playing with the toy, you can take it apart again because the blocks are still separate.
The device mapper in a computer works kind of like this. It lets you take different parts of your computer's storage, like hard drives or USB drives or even parts of RAM, and put them together in a certain order to make a bigger, more complicated storage space. But unlike gluing blocks together, when you're done using the storage space you can break it apart again.
This is useful for things like virtual machines or encrypted drives, where you want to create a separate storage space but you don't want to physically separate your hard drives or mess around with partitioning. The device mapper lets you create and manage these virtual storage spaces in a way that's easy to use and doesn't require any extra physical hardware.
So instead, you use a special device called a "mapper". This mapper lets you stack the blocks on top of each other in a certain order, to make the bigger toy you want. But when you're done playing with the toy, you can take it apart again because the blocks are still separate.
The device mapper in a computer works kind of like this. It lets you take different parts of your computer's storage, like hard drives or USB drives or even parts of RAM, and put them together in a certain order to make a bigger, more complicated storage space. But unlike gluing blocks together, when you're done using the storage space you can break it apart again.
This is useful for things like virtual machines or encrypted drives, where you want to create a separate storage space but you don't want to physically separate your hard drives or mess around with partitioning. The device mapper lets you create and manage these virtual storage spaces in a way that's easy to use and doesn't require any extra physical hardware.