/ 
Unix-Mknod-0.02
River stage two • 2 direct dependents • 20 total dependents
/ Unix::Mknod

NAME

Unix::Mknod - Perl extension for mknod, major, minor, and makedev

SYNOPSIS

use Unix::Mknod;
use File::stat;
use Fcntl ':mode';

$st=stat('/dev/null');
$major=major($st->rdev);
$minor=minor($st->rdev);

mknod('/tmp/special', S_IFCHR|0600, makedev($major,$minor+1));

DESCRIPTION

This module allows access to the device routines major()/minor()/makedev() that may or may not be macros in .h files.

It also allows access to the mknod system call.

FUNCTIONS

mknod($filename, $mode, $rdev)

Creates a block or character special device named $filename. Returns 0 on success and -1 on failure. Must be run as root.

$major = major($rdev)

Returns the major number for the specical device as defined by the st_rdev field from the stat() call.

$minor = minor($rdev)

Returns the minor number for the specical device as defined by the st_rdev field from the stat() call.

$rdev = makedev($major, $minor)

Returns the st_rdev number for the specical device from the $major and $minor numbers.

NOTES

There are 2 other perl modules that implement the mknod(2) system call, but they have problems working on some platforms. Sys::Mknod does not work on AIX because it uses the syscall(2) generic system call which AIX does not have. Mknod implements S_IFIFO, which on most platforms is not implemented in mknod, but rather mkfifo (which is implemented in POSIX perl module).

The perl module File::Stat::Bits also implements major() and minor() (and a version of makedev() called dev_join). They are done as a program to get the bit masks at compile time, but if major() and minor() are implemented as sub routines, the arugment could be something as simple as an index to a lookup table (and thereby having no decernable relation to its result).

BUGS

mknod will not work when you are not root, nor when you are trying to create a device on a filesystem that is mounted nodev, nor within a Solaris zone that is not the global zone.

SEE ALSO

File::Stat::Bits, Mknod, POSIX, Sys::Mknod

major(9), minor(9), mkfifo(1), mknod(8)

ftp://ftp-dev.cites.uiuc.edu/pub/Unix-Mknod

AUTHOR

Jim Pirzyk, <pirzyk@uiuc.edu>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2005 University of Illinois Board of Trustees All rights reserved.

Developed by: Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the ``Software''), to deal with the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

* Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimers.

* Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimers in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

* Neither the names of Campus Information Technologies and Educational Services, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this Software without specific prior written permission.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ``AS IS'', WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE CONTRIBUTORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS WITH THE SOFTWARE.