xref: /openbsd-src/lib/libc/sys/mknod.2 (revision ec5cd23ef093063387ec1273d0c19047daa9c801)
1.\"	$OpenBSD: mknod.2,v 1.21 2015/09/10 17:55:21 schwarze Exp $
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31.\"     @(#)mknod.2	8.1 (Berkeley) 6/4/93
32.\"
33.Dd $Mdocdate: September 10 2015 $
34.Dt MKNOD 2
35.Os
36.Sh NAME
37.Nm mknod ,
38.Nm mknodat
39.Nd make a special file node
40.Sh SYNOPSIS
41.In sys/stat.h
42.Ft int
43.Fn mknod "const char *path" "mode_t mode" "dev_t dev"
44.In sys/stat.h
45.In fcntl.h
46.Ft int
47.Fn mknodat "int fd" "const char *path" "mode_t mode" "dev_t dev"
48.Sh DESCRIPTION
49The
50.Fn mknod
51function creates
52.Fa path
53with a file type and mode of
54.Fa mode ,
55as modified by
56.Xr umask 2 .
57Only FIFO and device special files are supported by this implementation.
58.Pp
59If
60.Fa mode
61is the bitwise OR of
62.Dv S_IFIFO
63and zero or more file permissions, and
64.Fa dev
65is zero, then a FIFO is created.
66If
67.Fa mode
68is the bitwise OR of
69.Dv S_IFCHR
70or
71.Dv S_IFBLK
72and zero or more file permissions, then a character or block device
73special (respectively) is created with major and minor device numbers
74extracted from
75.Fa dev .
76.Pp
77The
78.Fn mknodat
79function is equivalent to
80.Fn mknod
81except that where
82.Fa path
83specifies a relative path,
84the newly created device special file is created relative to
85the directory associated with file descriptor
86.Fa fd
87instead of the current working directory.
88.Pp
89If
90.Fn mknodat
91is passed the special value
92.Dv AT_FDCWD
93(defined in
94.In fcntl.h )
95in the
96.Fa fd
97parameter, the current working directory is used
98and the behavior is identical to a call to
99.Fn mknod .
100.Pp
101Creating a device special file with
102.Fn mknod
103or
104.Fn mknodat
105requires superuser privileges.
106.Sh RETURN VALUES
107.Rv -std
108.Sh ERRORS
109.Fn mknod
110and
111.Fn mknodat
112will fail and the file will be not created if:
113.Bl -tag -width Er
114.It Bq Er EINVAL
115.Fa mode
116is an invalid file type or
117.Fa dev
118is an invalid value for that file type.
119.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
120A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
121.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
122A component of a pathname exceeded
123.Dv NAME_MAX
124characters, or an entire pathname (including the terminating NUL)
125exceeded
126.Dv PATH_MAX
127bytes.
128.It Bq Er ENOENT
129A component of the path prefix does not exist.
130.It Bq Er EACCES
131Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.
132.It Bq Er ELOOP
133Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
134.It Bq Er EPERM
135.Fa mode
136is a device special and the process's effective user ID is not superuser.
137.It Bq Er EIO
138An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode.
139.It Bq Er ENOSPC
140The directory in which the entry for the new node is being placed
141cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
142system containing the directory.
143.It Bq Er ENOSPC
144There are no free inodes on the file system on which the
145node is being created.
146.It Bq Er EDQUOT
147The directory in which the entry for the new node
148is being placed cannot be extended because the
149user's quota of disk blocks on the file system
150containing the directory has been exhausted.
151.It Bq Er EDQUOT
152The user's quota of inodes on the file system on
153which the node is being created has been exhausted.
154.It Bq Er EROFS
155The named file resides on a read-only file system.
156.It Bq Er EEXIST
157The named file exists.
158.It Bq Er EFAULT
159.Fa path
160points outside the process's allocated address space.
161.It Bq Er EINVAL
162The process is running within an alternate root directory, as
163created by
164.Xr chroot 2 .
165.El
166.Pp
167Additionally,
168.Fn mknodat
169will fail if:
170.Bl -tag -width Er
171.It Bq Er EBADF
172The
173.Fa path
174argument specifies a relative path and the
175.Fa fd
176argument is neither
177.Dv AT_FDCWD
178nor a valid file descriptor.
179.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
180The
181.Fa path
182argument specifies a relative path and the
183.Fa fd
184argument is a valid file descriptor but it does not reference a directory.
185.It Bq Er EACCES
186The
187.Fa path
188argument specifies a relative path but search permission is denied
189for the directory which the
190.Fa fd
191file descriptor references.
192.El
193.Sh SEE ALSO
194.Xr chmod 2 ,
195.Xr chroot 2 ,
196.Xr mkfifo 2 ,
197.Xr stat 2 ,
198.Xr umask 2
199.Sh STANDARDS
200The
201.Fn mknod
202and
203.Fn mknodat
204functions conform to
205.St -p1003.1-2008 .
206.Sh HISTORY
207The
208.Fn mknod
209system call first appeared in
210.At v4 ,
211and
212.Fn mknodat
213has been available since
214.Ox 5.0 .
215