Each and every IIO device, typically a hardware chip, has a device folder under /sys/bus/iio/devices/iio:deviceX. Where X is the IIO index of the device. Under every of these directory folders reside a set of files, depending on the characteristics and features of the hardware device in question.

These files are consistently generalized and documented in the IIO ABI documentation. In order to determine which IIO deviceX corresponds to which hardware device, the user can read the name file /sys/bus/iio/devices/iio:deviceX/name. In case the sequence in which the iio device drivers are loaded/registered is constant, the numbering is constant and may be known in advance.