MKNOD(2)

NAME
mknod - 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 constrained by the umask(2) of the parent process.

If mode indicates a block or character special file, dev is a configuration-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.

ERRORS
mknod() 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 directory 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 translating the pathname. This is taken to be indicative of a looping symbolic link.

[ENAMETOOLONG]
    A component of a pathname exceeds {NAME_MAX} characters or an entire path name exceeds {PATH_MAX} characters.

[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 directory.

[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 system.

LEGACY SYNOPSIS
#include <unistd.h>

The include file has changed.

SEE ALSO
chmod(2), stat(2), umask(2), compat(5)

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