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 ker-
             nel 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
             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 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 differ-
     ent format.  To create device nodes that may be used by such an operating
     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