NetBSD/share/man/man8/MAKEDEV.8.template

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.Dd @@@DATE@@@
.Dt MAKEDEV 8
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm MAKEDEV
.Nd create system and device special files
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.\" Please keep this in sync with MAKEDEV.local.8
.Nm
.Op Fl fMs
.Op Fl m Ar mknod
.Op Fl p Ar pax
.Op Fl t Ar mtree
.Bro Ar special | device Brc Op Ar ...
.Sh DESCRIPTION
.Nm
is used to create system and device special files.
As arguments it takes the names of known devices, like
.Ar sd0 ,
or of special targets, like
.Pa all
or
.Pa std ,
which create a collection of device special files,
or
.Pa local ,
which invokes
.Xr MAKEDEV.local 8
with the
.Pa all
argument.
.Pp
The script is in
.Pa /dev/MAKEDEV .
Devices are created in the current working directory;
in normal use,
.Nm
should be invoked with
.Pa /dev
as the current working directory.
.Pp
Supported options are:
.Bl -tag -width XmXmknodXX
.It Fl f
Force permissions to be updated on existing devices.
This works only if
.Nm
invokes
.Xr mknod 8 ;
it is not compatible with the
.Fl p ,
.Fl s ,
or
.Fl t
options.
.It Fl M
Create a memory file system, union mounted over the current directory,
to contain the device special files.
The memory file system is created using
.Xr mount_tmpfs 8
or
.Xr mount_mfs 8 ,
in that order of preference.
.Pp
If the
.Fl M
flag is specified more than once, then
.Nm
assumes that it is being invoked from
.Xr init 1
to populate a memory file system for
.Pa /dev .
In this case,
.Nm
will also redirect its output to the system console.
.It Fl m Ar mknod
Force the use of
.Xr mknod 8 ,
and specify the name or path to the
.Xr mknod 8
program.
[Usually, $TOOL_MKNOD or mknod.]
.It Fl p Ar pax
Force the use of
.Xr pax 1 ,
and specify the name or path to the
.Xr pax 1
program.
[Usually, $TOOL_PAX or pax.]
.It Fl s
Generate an
.Xr mtree 8
specfile instead of creating devices.
.It Fl t Ar mtree
Force the use of
.Xr mtree 8 ,
and specify the name or path to the
.Xr mtree 8
program.
[Usually, $TOOL_MTREE or mtree.]
.El
.Pp
.Nm
has several possible methods of creating device nodes:
.Bl -bullet
.It
By invoking the
.Xr mknod 8
command once for each device node.
This is the traditional method, but it is slow because each device node
is created using a new process.
.Pp
The
.Fl m
option forces
.Nm
to use the
.Xr mknod 8
method.
.It
By internally creating a specfile in a format usable by
.Xr mtree 8 ,
and providing the specfile on standard input to a
.Xr pax 1
or
.Xr mtree 8
command, invoked with options that request it to create the device nodes
as well as any necessary subdirectories.
This is much faster than creating device nodes with
.Xr mknod 8 ,
because it requires much fewer processes;
however, it's not compatible with the
.Fl f
option.
.Pp
The
.Fl p
or
.Fl t
options force
.Nm
to use the
.Xr pax 1
or
.Xr mtree 8
methods.
.It
If the
.Fl s
option is specified, then
.Nm
will not create device nodes at all, but will output
a specfile in a format usable by
.Xr mtree 8 .
.El
.Pp
The
.Fl m , Fl p , Fl s ,
and
.Fl t
flags are mutually exclusive.
If none of these flags is specified, then
.Nm
will use
.Xr mtree 8 ,
.Xr pax 1 ,
or
.Xr mknod 8 ,
in that order of preference, depending on which commands
appear to be available and usable.
In normal use, it's expected that
.Xr mtree 8
will be available, so it will be chosen.
If
.Nm
is invoked by
.Xr init 8 ,
it's expected that
.Xr mtree 8
will not be available, but
.Xr pax 1
may be available.
.Pp
The special targets supported on
.Nx
are:
.Pp
@@@SPECIAL@@@
.Pp
Please note that any hash marks
.Pq Dq #
in the following list of supported device targets must be replaced by
digits when calling
.Nm :
.Pp
@@@DEVICES@@@
.Sh ENVIRONMENT
The following environment variables affect the execution of
.Nm :
.Pp
.Bl -tag -width indent
.It Ev MAKEDEV_AS_LIBRARY
If this is set, then
.Nm
will define several shell functions and then return,
ignoring all its command line options and arguments.
This is used to enable
.Xr MAKEDEV.local 8
to use the shell functions defined in
.Nm .
.El
.Sh FILES
.Bl -tag -width "/dev/MAKEDEV.local" -compact
.It Pa /dev
special device files directory
.It Pa /dev/MAKEDEV
script described in this man page
.It Pa /dev/MAKEDEV.local
script for site-specific devices
.El
.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
If the script reports an error that is difficult to understand,
you can get more debugging output by using
.Dl Ic sh Fl x Ar MAKEDEV Ar argument .
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr config 1 ,
.Xr init 1 ,
.Xr pax 1 ,
.Xr intro 4 ,
.Xr MAKEDEV.local 8 ,
.Xr diskless 8 ,
.Xr mknod 8 ,
.Xr mount_mfs 8 ,
.Xr mount_tmpfs 8 ,
.Xr mtree 8
.Sh HISTORY
The
.Nm
command appeared in
.Bx 4.2 .
The
.Fl f ,
.Fl m ,
and
.Fl s
options were added in
.Nx 2.0 .
The
.Fl p ,
.Fl t ,
and
.Fl M
options were added in
.Nx 5.0 .
The ability to be used as a function library was added in
.Nx 5.0 .
.Sh BUGS
The
.Fl f
option is not compatible with the use of
.Xr mtree 8
or
.Xr pax 1 .
.Sh NOTES
Not all devices listed in this manpage are supported on all platforms.
.Pp
This man page is generated automatically from the same sources
as
.Pa /dev/MAKEDEV ,
in which the device files are not always sorted, which may result
in an unusual (non-alphabetical) order.
.Pp
In order to allow a diskless
.Nx
client to obtain its
.Pa /dev
directory from a file server running a foreign operating system,
one of the following techniques may be useful to populate
a directory of device nodes on the foreign server:
.Bl -bullet
.It
If the foreign server is sufficiently similar to
.Nx ,
run
.Nm
in an appropriate directory of the foreign server,
using the
.Fl m
flag to refer to a script that converts from command line
arguments that would be usable with the
.Nx
.Xr mknod 8
command to the equivalent commands for the foreign server.
.It
Run
.Nm
with the
.Fl s
flag to generate an
.Xr mtree 8
specification file; this can be done on any host with a
POSIX-compliant shell and a few widely-available utilities.
Use the
.Xr pax 1
command with the
.Fl w Fl M
flags to convert the
.Xr mtree 8
specification file into an archive
in a format that supports device nodes
(such as
.Ar ustar
format);
this can be done on a
.Nx
host, or can be done in a cross-build environment using
.Sy TOOLDIR Ns Pa /bin/nbpax .
Finally, use apropriate tools on the foreign server
to unpack the archive and create the device nodes.
.El