MKNOD(8) Maintenance Commands and Procedures MKNOD(8)

NAME

mknod - make a special file

SYNOPSIS

mknod name b major minor


mknod name c major minor


mknod name p

DESCRIPTION

mknod makes a directory entry for a special file.

OPTIONS

The following options are supported:

b
Create a block-type special file.


c
Create a character-type special file.


p
Create a FIFO (named pipe).

OPERANDS

The following operands are supported:

major
The major device number.


minor
The minor device number; can be either decimal or octal. The
assignment of major device numbers is specific to each system.
You must be the super-user to use this form of the command.


name
A special file to be created.

USAGE

See largefile(7) for the description of the behavior of mknod when
encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).

SEE ALSO

ftp(1), mknod(2), symlink(2), attributes(7), largefile(7)

NOTES

If mknod(2) is used to create a device, the major and minor device
numbers are always interpreted by the kernel running on that machine.


With the advent of physical device naming, it would be preferable to
create a symbolic link to the physical name of the device (in the
/devices subtree) rather than using mknod.

September 16, 1996 MKNOD(8)