mknod(8) - NetBSD Manual Pages

MKNOD(8)                NetBSD System Manager's Manual                MKNOD(8)


NAME

     mknod - make device special file


SYNOPSIS

     mknod [-F format] name [c | b] major minor
     mknod [-F format] name [c | b] major unit subunit
     mknod name [c | b] number
     mknod name p


DESCRIPTION

     The mknod command creates device special files, or fifos.  Normally the
     shell script /dev/MAKEDEV is used to create special files for commonly
     known devices; it executes mknod with the appropriate arguments and can
     make all the files required for the device.

     To make nodes manually, the required arguments are:

     name    Device name, for example ``sd'' for a SCSI disk on an HP300 or a
             ``pty'' for pseudo-devices.

     b | c | p
             Type of device.  If the device is a block type device such as a
             tape or disk drive which needs both cooked and raw special files,
             the type is b.  All other devices are character type devices,
             such as terminal and pseudo devices, and are type c.  Specifying
             p creates fifo files.

     major   The major device number is an integer number which tells the ker-
             nel which device driver entry point to use.  To learn what major
             device number to use for a particular device, check the file
             /dev/MAKEDEV to see if the device is known, or check the system
             dependent device configuration file:

                   ``/usr/src/sys/arch/<arch>/<arch>/conf.c''

             (e.g.  /usr/src/sys/arch/vax/vax/conf.c).

     minor   The minor device number tells the kernel which one of several
             similar devices the node corresponds to; for example, it may be a
             specific serial port or pty.

     unit and subunit
             The unit and subunit numbers select a subset of a device; for ex-
             ample, the unit may specify a particular SCSI disk, and the sub-
             unit a partition on that disk.  (Currently this form of specifi-
             cation is only supported by the bsdos format, for compatibility
             with the BSD/OS mknod(8)).

     The -F option is used to create device nodes that may be used by an oper-
     ating system which uses device numbers packed in a different format than
     NetBSD uses.  This is necessary when NetBSD is used as an NFS server for
     netbooted computers running other operating systems.

     The following values for the format following -F are recognized: native,
     386bsd, 4bsd, bsdos, freebsd, hpux, isc, linux, netbsd, osf1, sco,
     solaris, sunos, svr3, svr4, and ultrix.

     Alternatively, a single opaque device number may be specified.


SEE ALSO

     mkfifo(1), mkfifo(2), mknod(2), MAKEDEV(8)


HISTORY

     A mknod command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.  The -F option appeared
     in NetBSD 1.4.

NetBSD 1.6                    September 11, 1998                             2