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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.  Normally the shell script /dev/MAKEDEV is used to cre-ate create
     ate 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 | 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.  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 one of several similar devices the node corre-sponds corresponds
             sponds to; for example, it may be a specific 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 speci-fication specification
             fication 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 operating system (e.g. in an exported file system used for netboot-ing), netbooting),
     ing), 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