NAME
mknod —
build special file
SYNOPSIS
mknod |
name [c |
b] major minor |
DESCRIPTION
Themknod command creates device special files. 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 four 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 typec. - 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 subunit the node corresponds to on the device; for example, a subunit may be a filesystem partition or a tty line.
SEE ALSO
HISTORY
A mknod command appeared in Version 6
AT&T UNIX.