file_cmds/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 .Nm
  58 .Ar name
  59 .Ar w
  60 .Sh DESCRIPTION
  61 The
  62 .Nm
  63 command creates device special files.
  64 .Pp
  65 To make nodes manually, the required arguments are:
  66 .Pp
  67 .Bl -tag -width majorx
  68 .It Ar name
  69 Device name, for example
  70 .Dq sd
  71 for a SCSI disk on an HP300 or a
  72 .Dq pty
  73 for pseudo-devices.
  74 .It Cm b | Cm c | Cm w
  75 Type of device. If the
  76 device is a block type device such as a tape or disk drive which needs
  77 both cooked and raw special files,
  78 the type is
  79 .Cm b .
  80 Whiteout nodes are type
  81 .Cm w .
  82 All other devices are character type devices, such as terminal
  83 and pseudo devices, and are type
  84 .Cm c .
  85 .It Ar major
  86 The major device number is an integer number which tells the kernel
  87 which device driver entry point to use.
  88 .It Ar minor
  89 The minor device number tells the kernel which one of several similar
  90 devices the node corresponds to; for example, it may be a specific serial
  91 port or pty.
  92 .It Ar unit and subunit
  93 The unit and subunit numbers select a subset of a device; for example, the
  94 unit may specify a particular SCSI disk, and the subunit a partition on
  95 that disk.  (Currently this form of specification is only supported by the
  96 .Ar bsdos
  97 format, for compatibility with the
  98 .Bsx
  99 .Xr mknod 8 . )
 100 .El
 101 .Pp
 102 Device numbers for different operating systems may be packed in a different
 103 format.  To create device nodes that may be used by such an operating system
 104 (e.g. in an exported file system used for netbooting), the
 105 .Fl F
 106 option is used.  The following formats are recognized:
 107 native,
 108 386bsd,
 109 4bsd,
 110 bsdos,
 111 freebsd,
 112 hpux,
 113 isc,
 114 linux,
 115 netbsd,
 116 osf1,
 117 sco,
 118 solaris,
 119 sunos,
 120 svr3,
 121 svr4 and
 122 ultrix.
 123 .Pp
 124 Alternatively, a single opaque device number may be specified.
 125 .Sh SEE ALSO
 126 .Xr mkfifo 1 ,
 127 .Xr mkfifo 2 ,
 128 .Xr mknod 2
 129 .Sh HISTORY
 130 A
 131 .Nm
 132 command appeared in
 133 .At v6 .
 134 The
 135 .Fl F
 136 option appeared in
 137 .Nx 1.4 .