NAME

mknod — make a special file node

LIBRARY

Standard C Library (libc, -lc)

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 specified by dev. The access permissions of path are extracted from mode, modified by the umask(2) of the parent process.

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.

ERRORS

mknod() will fail and the file will be not created if:

[EACCES]

Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.

[EDQUOT]

The directory in which the entry for the new node is being placed cannot be extended because the user's quota of disk blocks on the file system containing the directory has been exhausted; or the user's quota of inodes on 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]

The supplied mode or dev is invalid.

[EIO]

An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode.

[ELOOP]

Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.

[ENAMETOOLONG]

A component of a pathname exceeded {NAME_MAX} characters, or an entire path name exceeded {PATH_MAX} characters.

[ENOENT]

A component of the path prefix does not exist.

[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 directory; or 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 named file resides on a read-only file system.

SEE ALSO

chmod(2), mkfifo(2), stat(2), umask(2)

HISTORY

A mknod() function call appeared in Version 6 AT&T UNIX.