xref: /freebsd/lib/libsys/mknod.2 (revision d37eb51047221dc3322b34db1038ff3aa533883f)
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28.Dd March 30, 2020
29.Dt MKNOD 2
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm mknod ,
33.Nm mknodat
34.Nd make a special file node
35.Sh LIBRARY
36.Lb libc
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.In sys/stat.h
39.Ft int
40.Fn mknod "const char *path" "mode_t mode" "dev_t dev"
41.Ft int
42.Fn mknodat "int fd" "const char *path" "mode_t mode" "dev_t dev"
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The file system node
45.Fa path
46is created with the file type and access permissions specified in
47.Fa mode .
48The access permissions are modified by the process's umask value.
49.Pp
50If
51.Fa mode
52indicates a block or character special file,
53.Fa dev
54is a configuration dependent specification denoting a particular device
55on the system.
56Otherwise,
57.Fa dev
58is ignored.
59.Pp
60The
61.Fn mknod
62system call
63requires super-user privileges.
64.Pp
65The
66.Fn mknodat
67system call is equivalent to
68.Fn mknod
69except in the case where
70.Fa path
71specifies a relative path.
72In this case the newly created device node is created relative to the
73directory associated with the file descriptor
74.Fa fd
75instead of the current working directory.
76If
77.Fn mknodat
78is passed the special value
79.Dv AT_FDCWD
80in the
81.Fa fd
82parameter, the current working directory is used and the behavior is
83identical to a call to
84.Fn mknod .
85.Sh RETURN VALUES
86.Rv -std mknod
87.Sh ERRORS
88The
89.Fn mknod
90system call
91will fail and the file will be not created if:
92.Bl -tag -width Er
93.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
94A component of the path prefix is not a directory.
95.It Bq Er ENAMETOOLONG
96A component of a pathname exceeded 255 characters,
97or an entire path name exceeded 1023 characters.
98.It Bq Er ENOENT
99A component of the path prefix does not exist.
100.It Bq Er EACCES
101Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.
102.It Bq Er ELOOP
103Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.
104.It Bq Er EPERM
105The process's effective user ID is not super-user.
106.It Bq Er EIO
107An I/O error occurred while making the directory entry or allocating the inode.
108.It Bq Er EINTEGRITY
109Corrupted data was detected while reading from the file system.
110.It Bq Er ENOSPC
111The directory in which the entry for the new node is being placed
112cannot be extended because there is no space left on the file
113system containing the directory.
114.It Bq Er ENOSPC
115There are no free inodes on the file system on which the
116node is being created.
117.It Bq Er EDQUOT
118The directory in which the entry for the new node
119is being placed cannot be extended because the
120user's quota of disk blocks on the file system
121containing the directory has been exhausted.
122.It Bq Er EDQUOT
123The user's quota of inodes on the file system on
124which the node is being created has been exhausted.
125.It Bq Er EROFS
126The named file resides on a read-only file system.
127.It Bq Er EEXIST
128The named file exists.
129.It Bq Er EFAULT
130The
131.Fa path
132argument
133points outside the process's allocated address space.
134.It Bq Er EINVAL
135Creating anything else than a block or character special
136file (or a
137.Em whiteout )
138is not supported.
139.El
140.Pp
141In addition to the errors returned by the
142.Fn mknod ,
143the
144.Fn mknodat
145may fail if:
146.Bl -tag -width Er
147.It Bq Er EBADF
148The
149.Fa path
150argument does not specify an absolute path and the
151.Fa fd
152argument is neither
153.Dv AT_FDCWD
154nor a valid file descriptor open for searching.
155.It Bq Er ENOTDIR
156The
157.Fa path
158argument is not an absolute path and
159.Fa fd
160is neither
161.Dv AT_FDCWD
162nor a file descriptor associated with a directory.
163.El
164.Sh SEE ALSO
165.Xr chmod 2 ,
166.Xr mkfifo 2 ,
167.Xr stat 2 ,
168.Xr umask 2
169.Sh STANDARDS
170The
171.Fn mknodat
172system call follows The Open Group Extended API Set 2 specification.
173.Sh HISTORY
174The
175.Fn mknod
176function appeared in
177.At v4 .
178The
179.Fn mknodat
180system call appeared in
181.Fx 8.0 .
182