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Raw

Webopedia Staff
Last Updated May 24, 2021 7:53 am

Unprocessed. The term refers to data that is passed along to an I/O device without being interpreted. In contrast, cookedrefers to data that is processed before being passed to the I/O device.

The term comes from UNIX, which supports cooked and raw modes for data output to a terminal. In cooked mode, special characters, such as erase and kill are processed by the device driver before being sent the output device.