MKNOD

Section: Maintenance Commands (8)
Index Return to Main Contents

BSD mandoc
NetBSD 1.4  

NAME

mknod - make device special file  

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

The command creates device special files. Normally the shell script /dev/MAKEDEV is used to create special files for commonly known devices; it executes 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
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
major
The major device number is an integer number which tells the kernel 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/conf/device. architecture ''

(for example device.hp300 )

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 example, the unit may specify a particular SCSI disk, and the subunit a partition on that disk. (Currently this form of specification is only supported by the bsdos format, for compatibility with the Bs x mknod(8).)

Device numbers for different operating systems may be packed in a different format. To create device nodes that may be used by such an operating system (e.g. in an exported file system used for netbooting), the -F option is used. The following formats 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 command appeared in AT&T System v6 . The -F option appeared in Nx 1.4 .


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
SEE ALSO
HISTORY

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Time: 04:30:08 GMT, April 24, 2025