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mknod(8) System Manager's Manual mknod(8) NAME mknod - Creates a special file SYNOPSIS /usr/sbin/mknod special_file [ b major_device# minor_device# | c ma- jor_device# minor_device#] /usr/sbin/mknod filename p DESCRIPTION The mknod command makes a directory entry. The first argument is the name of the special device file. Select a name that is descriptive of the device. The mknod command has two forms. In the first form, the second argu- ment is the b or c flag. The last two arguments are numbers specifying the major_device, which helps the operating system find the device dri- ver code, and the minor_device, the unit drive, or line number, which may be either decimal or octal. The assignment of major device numbers is specific to each system. You can determine the device numbers by examining the conf.c system source file. If you change the contents of the conf.c file to add a device driver, you must rebuild the kernel. In the second form of mknod, you use the p flag to create named pipes (FIFOs). Only the superuser can create a character or device special file. FLAGS Indicates that the special file corresponds to a block-oriented device (disk or tape) Indicates that the special file corresponds to a charac- ter-oriented device Creates named pipes (FIFOs) EXAMPLES To create the special file for a new drive, /dev/ra2, with a major de- vice number of 1 and a minor device number of 2, enter: mknod /dev/ra2 b 1 2 This command creates the special file, /dev/ra2, which is a block special file with major device number 1 and minor device number 2. To create a pipe named fifo, enter: mknod fifo p This command cre- ates the pipe fifo, which is not necessarily in the current directory. FILES Specifies the command path Specifies the system device numbers specifi- cation file delim off mknod(8)