MKNOD(8)						    BSD System Manager's Manual 						  MKNOD(8)

NAME

     mknod -- make device special file

SYNOPSIS

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

DESCRIPTION

     The mknod 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 required arguments are:

     name    Device name, for example ``sd'' for a SCSI disk on an HP300 or a ``pty'' for pseudo-devices.

     b | c | p
	     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.  To create named pipes
	     the type p can be used.

     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 depen-
	     dent 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 spe-
	     cific 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
	     BSD/OS 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 oper-
     ating 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 mknod command appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.  The -F option appeared in NetBSD 1.4.

NetBSD 1.4							September 11, 1998							NetBSD 1.4