NAME

SYNOPSIS

#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
#include <fcntl.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int mknod(const char *pathname, mode_t mode, dev_t dev);

Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

mknod(): _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500  

DESCRIPTION

The mode argument specifies both the permissions to use and the type of node to be created. It should be a combination (using bitwise OR) of one of the file types listed below and the permissions for the new node.

The permissions are modified by the process's umask in the usual way: the permissions of the created node are (mode & ~umask).

The file type must be one of S_IFREG, S_IFCHR, S_IFBLK, S_IFIFO or S_IFSOCK to specify a regular file (which will be created empty), character special file, block special file, FIFO (named pipe), or Unix domain socket, respectively. (Zero file type is equivalent to type S_IFREG.)

If the file type is S_IFCHR or S_IFBLK then dev specifies the major and minor numbers of the newly created device special file; otherwise it is ignored.

If pathname already exists, or is a symbolic link, this call fails with an EEXIST error.

The newly created node will be owned by the effective user ID of the process. If the directory containing the node has the set-group-ID bit set, or if the file system is mounted with BSD group semantics, the new node will inherit the group ownership from its parent directory; otherwise it will be owned by the effective group ID of the process.  

RETURN VALUE

ERRORS

EACCES

The parent directory does not allow write permission to the process, or one of the directories in the path prefix of pathname did not allow search permission. (See also path_resolution(7).)

EEXIST

pathname already exists. This includes the case where pathname is a symbolic link, dangling or not.

EFAULT

pathname points outside your accessible address space.

EINVAL

mode requested creation of something other than a regular file, device special file, FIFO or socket.

ELOOP

Too many symbolic links were encountered in resolving pathname.

ENAMETOOLONG

pathname was too long.

ENOENT

A directory component in pathname does not exist or is a dangling symbolic link.

ENOMEM

Insufficient kernel memory was available.

ENOSPC

The device containing pathname has no room for the new node.

ENOTDIR

A component used as a directory in pathname is not, in fact, a directory.

EPERM

mode requested creation of something other than a regular file, FIFO (named pipe), or Unix domain socket, and the caller is not privileged (Linux: does not have the CAP_MKNOD capability); also returned if the file system containing pathname does not support the type of node requested.

EROFS

pathname refers to a file on a read-only file system.

CONFORMING TO

NOTES

Under Linux, this call cannot be used to create directories. One should make directories with mkdir(2).

There are many infelicities in the protocol underlying NFS. Some of these affect mknod().  

SEE ALSO

COLOPHON

Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

RETURN VALUE

ERRORS

CONFORMING TO

NOTES

SEE ALSO

COLOPHON