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.\"     @(#)mknod.8	8.2 (Berkeley) 12/11/93
.\"
.Dd September 11, 1998
.Dt MKNOD 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm mknod
.Nd make device special file
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Nm
.Op Fl F Ar format
.Ar name
.Op Cm c | Cm b
.Ar major minor
.Nm ""
.Op Fl F Ar format
.Ar name
.Op Cm c | Cm b
.Ar major unit subunit
.Nm ""
.Ar name
.Op Cm c | Cm b
.Ar number
.Nm ""
.Ar name
.Cm p
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Nm
command creates device special files, or fifos.
Normally the shell script
.Pa /dev/MAKEDEV
is used to create special files for commonly known devices; it executes
.Nm
with the appropriate arguments and can make all the files required for the
device.
.Pp
To make nodes manually, the required arguments are:
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width majorx
.It Ar name
Device name, for example
.Dq sd
for a SCSI disk on an HP300 or a
.Dq pty
for pseudo-devices.
.It Cm b | Cm c | Cm p
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
.Cm b .
All other devices are character type devices, such as terminal
and pseudo devices, and are type
.Cm c .
Specifying
.Cm p
creates fifo files.
.It Ar 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
.Pa /dev/MAKEDEV
to see if the device is known, or check
the system dependent device configuration file:
.Bd -filled -offset indent
.Dq Pa /usr/src/sys/arch/<arch>/<arch>/conf.c
.Ed
.Pp
.Po
e.g.
.Pa /usr/src/sys/arch/vax/vax/conf.c
.Pc .
.It Ar 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.
.It Ar unit No and Ar 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
.Ar bsdos
format, for compatibility with the
.Bsx
.Xr mknod 8 ) .
.El
.Pp
The
.Fl F
option is used to create device nodes that may be used by an
operating system which uses device numbers packed in a different
format than
.Nx
uses.
This is necessary when
.Nx
is used as an
.Tn NFS
server for netbooted computers running other operating systems.
.Pp
The following values for the
.Ar format
following
.Fl F
are recognized:
.Sy native ,
.Sy 386bsd ,
.Sy 4bsd ,
.Sy bsdos ,
.Sy freebsd ,
.Sy hpux ,
.Sy isc ,
.Sy linux ,
.Sy netbsd ,
.Sy osf1 ,
.Sy sco ,
.Sy solaris ,
.Sy sunos ,
.Sy svr3 ,
.Sy svr4 ,
and
.Sy ultrix .
.Pp
Alternatively, a single opaque device number may be specified.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr mkfifo 1 ,
.Xr mkfifo 2 ,
.Xr mknod 2 ,
.Xr MAKEDEV 8
.Sh HISTORY
A
.Nm
command appeared in
.At v6 .
The
.Fl F
option appeared in
.Nx 1.4 .