mknod(1M) System Administration Commands mknod(1M)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(5) for the description of the behavior of mknod when encountering files greater than or equal to 2 Gbyte ( 2^31 bytes).
ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
| ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
|Availability |SUNWcsu |
+-----------------------------+-----------------------------+
SEE ALSO ftp(1), in.ftpd(1M), mknod(2), symlink(2), attributes(5), largefile(5)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.
SunOS 5.11 16 Sep 1996 mknod(1M)
Check Out this Related Man Page
MKNOD(8) BSD System Manager's Manual MKNOD(8)NAME
mknod -- make device special file
SYNOPSIS
mknod [-F format] name [c | b] major minor
mknod [-F format] name [c | b] major unit subunit
mknod name [c | b] number
mknod name w
DESCRIPTION
The mknod command creates device special files.
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 | w
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. Whiteout nodes are type w. All other devices are character type devices, such as terminal and pseudo devices, and are
type c.
major The major device number is an integer number which tells the kernel which device driver entry point to use.
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)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
Can someone please tell me what the command mknod does and what it's syntax is? I can't find it in my "Unix for dummies" book or "Unix in s nutshell". I found it in an existing script that I want to copy, but I want to understand what I am doing. The script is going to do a full export of an... (3 Replies)
Hi
Can anyone tell me what is major number and minor number in the mknod command. Also what these numbers mean.
I have gone through the man pages but still I couldn't understand.
Regards (3 Replies)
Hi,
I am working on device drivers.Once If register a device i'll get one major no. If i unregister and register again i'll get a different major no.What i have to do to get same major no. each time :( (0 Replies)
I'm trying to use the "mknod" call in C to create a clone of /dev/null. I am stumped as to the final parameter I should provide to "mknod()". I am supposed to give it a type dev_t, which specifies a major & minor number. I want to specify major 3, minor 1, but how can I do this?
dev_t seems to... (2 Replies)
I need to have my scripts import volume groups and mknod devices files. I have most of the script working but the device file needs to be in the format 0x??0000 (where the question marks are my HEX representations of the volume group number. I have the code below and the output it produces which... (2 Replies)
Something (I'm still trying to find out what) has clobbered our /dev/null and made it into an ordinary file. I know I need to recreate it with mknod, but I'm unsure what the major and minor device numbers should be - I know enough to know that they vary on different systems and I've seen 1 3, 2 2,... (4 Replies)
Good evening ...
does anyone of you know how to change major/minor numbers of disk devices ?
I had to migrate from raid1 to raid5 and this messed up my ASM cluster - I know which devices should have which IDs to match the content - but I have no idea how to change it.
Any help would be... (2 Replies)
Hi, I would like to know what kind of UNIX major investment banks tend to use? I want to try to get a job with one of these places. By major, I mean big companies like Citigroup, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, etc. Thanks. (5 Replies)
HI All,
I would like to know is it compulsory to keep major number of shared VG's on cluster nodes to be same..?
I have come across a situation where on one node major number of shared vg is the major number of altinst_rootvg on other node..how to overcome this situation..?
shan (3 Replies)
Hello All,
Friends i know mknod with -p option is used to create FIFO special file.:p
But i want to know some circumstance/scenario where these are used.:wall:
Actually i want to know where i can use it in real time.
Please advise.:) (3 Replies)
Hi Guys,
On my AIX server , I have this file "mknod" present in the /etc/ directory. When i try opening it , I dont find
any ascii characters. It shows some encryption/binary format which is not readable. Is it any executable ? what is the
purpose of having this file in etc folder? what if... (2 Replies)
Im a soph. EE major with an interest in applied mathematics looking to get into HPC and am looking for suggestions on where to start in terms of reading up on some CS subjects in order to get relatively rigorous understanding of whats really going on. For example im interested in parallel... (2 Replies)