mknod

v0.0.28 
mknod [OPTION]... NAME TYPE [MAJOR MINOR]

Create the special file NAME of the given TYPE.

Options

--mode=<MODE>, -m <MODE>

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

name of the new file

type of the new file (b, c, u or p)

major file type

minor file 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

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.

Examples

Create a block device:

sudo mknod {{path/to/device_file}} b {{major_device_number}} {{minor_device_number}}

Create a character device:

sudo mknod {{path/to/device_file}} c {{major_device_number}} {{minor_device_number}}

Create a FIFO (queue) device:

sudo mknod {{path/to/device_file}} p

Create a device file with default SELinux security context:

sudo mknod -Z {{path/to/device_file}} {{type}} {{major_device_number}} {{minor_device_number}}

The examples are provided by the tldr-pages project under the CC BY 4.0 License.

Please note that, as uutils is a work in progress, some examples might fail.