if test -z "${device_args}" ; then
    device_args="sock"
fi
channel_name=`echo ${device_args} | sed -e 's/:.*$//'`
channel_args=`echo ${device_args} | sed -e 's/^[^:]*//' -e 's/^://'`

#
# reset DEVICE so that it (a) always includes the channel name, and (b) does not include channel options
#
DEVICE="${device_name}:${channel_name}"
