MKNOD(2) BSD System Calls Manual MKNOD(2)NAMEmknod — make a special file node
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/stat.h>
int
mknod(const char *path, mode_t mode, dev_t dev);
DESCRIPTION
The device special file path is created with the major and minor device
numbers extracted from mode. The access permissions of path are con‐
strained by the umask(2) of the parent process.
If mode indicates a block or character special file, dev is a configura‐
tion-dependent specification of a character or block I/O device and the
superblock of the device. If mode does not indicate a block special or
character special device, dev is ignored.
Mknod() requires super-user privileges.
RETURN VALUES
Upon successful completion, a value of 0 is returned. Otherwise, a value
of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.
ERRORSMknod() will fail and the file will be not created if:
[EACCES] Search permission is denied for a component of the
path prefix.
[EACCES] Write permission is denied for the parent directory.
[EDQUOT] The directory in which the entry for the new node is
being placed cannot be extended; the user's quota of
disk blocks on the file system containing the direc‐
tory has been exhausted.
[EDQUOT] The user's quota of inodes for the file system on
which the node is being created has been exhausted.
[EEXIST] The named file exists.
[EFAULT] Path points outside the process's allocated address
space.
[EINVAL] One or more of the arguments is invalid.
[EIO] An I/O error occurs while making the directory entry
or allocating the inode.
[ELOOP] Too many symbolic links were encountered in translat‐
ing the pathname. This is taken to be indicative of a
looping symbolic link.
[ENAMETOOLONG] A component of a pathname exceeds {NAME_MAX} charac‐
ters or an entire path name exceeds {PATH_MAX} charac‐
ters.
[ENOENT] A component of the path prefix does not exist or path
is an empty string.
[ENOSPC] The directory in which the entry for the new node is
being placed cannot be extended, because there is no
space left on the file system containing the direc‐
tory.
[ENOSPC] There are no free inodes on the file system on which
the node is being created.
[ENOTDIR] A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
[EPERM] The process's effective user ID is not super-user.
[EROFS] The created node would reside on a read-only file sys‐
tem.
LEGACY SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>
The include file has changed.
SEE ALSOchmod(2), stat(2), umask(2), compat(5)HISTORY
A mknod() function call appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.
4th Berkeley Distribution June 4, 1993 4th Berkeley Distribution
