Can someone explain how /dev/tcp works in Linux?

So, /dev/tcp isn't a real directory or file. It's a special feature of Bash that allows you to use it as a way to handle TCP connections in your scripts. For example, when you try to list /dev/tcp, you’ll see it doesn’t exist because Bash creates a virtual interface for it to handle TCP sockets. You can connect to a TCP port of a host by redirecting output to /dev/tcp/host/port, and Bash manages the details behind the scenes. Just remember, this only works in Bash, not in other shells.

It’s definitely a Bash-specific thing! When you redirect to /dev/tcp/host/port, Bash opens a socket connection to that host and port for you. It’s not something you'd see in typical filesystems. As a tip, if you want to dive deeper, I found a detailed explanation over on Stack Exchange that dives into different usage scenarios for /dev/tcp.