mknod — make block or character special files

Examples (TL;DR)

Synopsis

mknod [OPTION]... NAME TYPE [MAJOR MINOR]

Description

Create the special file NAME of the given TYPE.

Mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too.

-m, --mode=MODE

set file permission bits to MODE, not a=rw - umask

-Z

set the SELinux security context to default type

--context[=CTX]

like -Z, or if CTX is specified then set the SELinux or SMACK security context to CTX

--help

display this help and exit

--version

output version information and exit

Both MAJOR and MINOR must be specified when TYPE is b, c, or u, and they must be omitted when TYPE is p.  If MAJOR or MINOR begins with 0x or 0X, it is interpreted as hexadecimal; otherwise, if it begins with 0, as octal; otherwise, as decimal.  TYPE may be:

b

create a block (buffered) special file

c, u

create a character (unbuffered) special file

p

create a FIFO

NOTE: your shell may have its own version of mknod, which usually supersedes the version described here.  Please refer to your shell's documentation for details about the options it supports.

Author

Written by David MacKenzie.

Reporting Bugs

GNU coreutils online help: <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/>
Report any translation bugs to <https://translationproject.org/team/>

See Also

mknod(2)

Full documentation <https://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils/mknod>
or available locally via: info '(coreutils) mknod invocation'

Referenced By

buffindexed.conf(5), cycbuff.conf(5), fd(4), full(4), hd(4), hier(7), initrd(4), intro(4), ioctl_console(2), lp(4), mem(4), mknod(2), null(4), perlipc(1), ram(4), random(4), tty(4), ttyS(4).

October 2019 GNU coreutils 8.31