mknod/mknod.8

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  34 .\"     @(#)mknod.8     8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93
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  36 .Dd September 11, 1998
  37 .Dt MKNOD 8
  38 .Os NetBSD 1.4
  39 .Sh NAME
  40 .Nm mknod
  41 .Nd make device special file
  42 .Sh SYNOPSIS
  43 .Nm
  44 .Op Fl F Ar format
  45 .Ar name
  46 .Op Cm c | Cm b
  47 .Ar major minor
  48 .Nm
  49 .Op Fl F Ar format
  50 .Ar name
  51 .Op Cm c | Cm b
  52 .Ar major unit subunit
  53 .Nm
  54 .Ar name
  55 .Op Cm c | Cm b
  56 .Ar number
  57 .Sh DESCRIPTION
  58 The
  59 .Nm
  60 command creates device special files.
  61 Normally the shell script
  62 .Pa /dev/MAKEDEV
  63 is used to create special files for commonly known devices; it executes
  64 .Nm
  65 with the appropriate arguments and can make all the files required for the
  66 device.
  67 .Pp
  68 To make nodes manually, the required arguments are:
  69 .Pp
  70 .Bl -tag -width majorx
  71 .It Ar name
  72 Device name, for example
  73 .Dq sd
  74 for a SCSI disk on an HP300 or a
  75 .Dq pty
  76 for pseudo-devices.
  77 .It Cm b | Cm c
  78 Type of device. If the
  79 device is a block type device such as a tape or disk drive which needs
  80 both cooked and raw special files,
  81 the type is
  82 .Cm b .
  83 All other devices are character type devices, such as terminal
  84 and pseudo devices, and are type
  85 .Cm c .
  86 .It Ar major
  87 The major device number is an integer number which tells the kernel
  88 which device driver entry point to use.  To learn what
  89 major device number to use for a particular device, check the file
  90 .Pa /dev/MAKEDEV
  91 to see if the device is known, or check
  92 the system dependent device configuration file:
  93 .Bd -filled -offset indent
  94 .Dq Pa /usr/src/sys/conf/device. Ns Em architecture
  95 .Ed
  96 .Pp
  97 (for example
  98 .Pa device.hp300 ) .
  99 .It Ar minor
 100 The minor device number tells the kernel which one of several similar
 101 devices the node corresponds to; for example, it may be a specific serial
 102 port or pty.
 103 .It Ar unit and subunit
 104 The unit and subunit numbers select a subset of a device; for example, the
 105 unit may specify a particular SCSI disk, and the subunit a partition on
 106 that disk.  (Currently this form of specification is only supported by the
 107 .Ar bsdos
 108 format, for compatibility with the
 109 .Bsx
 110 .Xr mknod 8 .)
 111 .El
 112 .Pp
 113 Device numbers for different operating systems may be packed in a different
 114 format.  To create device nodes that may be used by such an operating system
 115 (e.g. in an exported file system used for netbooting), the
 116 .Fl F
 117 option is used.  The following formats are recognized:
 118 native,
 119 386bsd,
 120 4bsd,
 121 bsdos,
 122 freebsd,
 123 hpux,
 124 isc,
 125 linux,
 126 netbsd,
 127 osf1,
 128 sco,
 129 solaris,
 130 sunos,
 131 svr3,
 132 svr4 and
 133 ultrix.
 134 .Pp
 135 Alternatively, a single opaque device number may be specified.
 136 .Sh SEE ALSO
 137 .Xr mkfifo 1 ,
 138 .Xr mkfifo 2 ,
 139 .Xr mknod 2 ,
 140 .Xr MAKEDEV 8
 141 .Sh HISTORY
 142 A
 143 .Nm
 144 command appeared in
 145 .At v6 .
 146 The
 147 .Fl F
 148 option appeared in
 149 .Nx 1.4 .