osx man page for mknod

MKNOD(2)						      BSD System Calls Manual							  MKNOD(2)

NAME
     mknod -- make a special file node

SYNOPSIS
     #include <sys/stat.h>

     int
     mknod(const char *path, mode_t mode, dev_t dev);

DESCRIPTION
     The device special file path is created with the major and minor device numbers extracted from mode.  The access permissions of path are con-
     strained by the umask(2) of the parent process.

     If mode indicates a block or character special file, dev is a configuration-dependent specification of a character or block I/O device and
     the superblock of the device.  If mode does not indicate a block special or character special device, dev is ignored.

     Mknod() requires super-user privileges.

RETURN VALUES
     Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned.  Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
     Mknod() will fail and the file will be not created if:

     [EACCES]		Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.

     [EACCES]		Write permission is denied for the parent directory.

     [EDQUOT]		The directory in which the entry for the new node is being placed cannot be extended; the user's quota of disk blocks on
			the file system containing the directory has been exhausted.

     [EDQUOT]		The user's quota of inodes for the file system on which the node is being created has been exhausted.

     [EEXIST]		The named file exists.

     [EFAULT]		Path points outside the process's allocated address space.

     [EINVAL]		One or more of the arguments is invalid.

     [EIO]		An I/O error occurs while making the directory entry or allocating the inode.

     [ELOOP]		Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.  This is taken to be indicative of a looping sym-
			bolic link.

     [ENAMETOOLONG]	A component of a pathname exceeds {NAME_MAX} characters or an entire path name exceeds {PATH_MAX} characters.

     [ENOENT]		A component of the path prefix does not exist or path is an empty string.

     [ENOSPC]		The directory in which the entry for the new node is being placed cannot be extended, because there is no space left on
			the file system containing the directory.

     [ENOSPC]		There are no free inodes on the file system on which the node is being created.

     [ENOTDIR]		A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

     [EPERM]		The process's effective user ID is not super-user.

     [EROFS]		The created node would reside on a read-only file system.

LEGACY SYNOPSIS
     #include <unistd.h>

     The include file has changed.

SEE ALSO
     chmod(2), stat(2), umask(2), compat(5)

HISTORY
     A mknod() function call appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.

4th Berkeley Distribution					   June 4, 1993 					 4th Berkeley Distribution