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This manual page is part of the POSIX Programmer's Manual. The Linux implementation of this interface
may differ (consult the corresponding Linux manual page for details of Linux behavior), or the interface
may not be implemented on Linux.
NAME
mknod, mknodat — make directory, special file, or regular file
SYNOPSIS
#include <sys/stat.h>
int mknod(const char *path, mode_t mode, dev_t dev);
int mknodat(int fd, const char *path, mode_t mode, dev_t dev);
DESCRIPTION
The mknod() function shall create a new file named by the pathname to which the argument path points.
The file type for path is OR'ed into the mode argument, and the application shall select one of the
following symbolic constants:
┌───────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
│ Name │ Description │
├───────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│S_IFIFO │ FIFO-special │
│S_IFCHR │ Character-special (non-portable) │
│S_IFDIR │ Directory (non-portable) │
│S_IFBLK │ Block-special (non-portable) │
│S_IFREG │ Regular (non-portable) │
└───────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘
The only portable use of mknod() is to create a FIFO-special file. If mode is not S_IFIFO or dev is not
0, the behavior of mknod() is unspecified.
The permissions for the new file are OR'ed into the mode argument, and may be selected from any
combination of the following symbolic constants:
┌───────────┬─────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Name │ Description │
├───────────┼─────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│S_ISUID │ Set user ID on execution. │
│S_ISGID │ Set group ID on execution. │
│S_IRWXU │ Read, write, or execute (search) by owner. │
│S_IRUSR │ Read by owner. │
│S_IWUSR │ Write by owner. │
│S_IXUSR │ Execute (search) by owner. │
│S_IRWXG │ Read, write, or execute (search) by group. │
│S_IRGRP │ Read by group. │
│S_IWGRP │ Write by group. │
│S_IXGRP │ Execute (search) by group. │
│S_IRWXO │ Read, write, or execute (search) by others. │
│S_IROTH │ Read by others. │
│S_IWOTH │ Write by others. │
│S_IXOTH │ Execute (search) by others. │
│S_ISVTX │ On directories, restricted deletion flag. │
└───────────┴─────────────────────────────────────────────┘
The user ID of the file shall be initialized to the effective user ID of the process. The group ID of the
file shall be initialized to either the effective group ID of the process or the group ID of the parent
directory. Implementations shall provide a way to initialize the file's group ID to the group ID of the
parent directory. Implementations may, but need not, provide an implementation-defined way to initialize
the file's group ID to the effective group ID of the calling process. The owner, group, and other
permission bits of mode shall be modified by the file mode creation mask of the process. The mknod()
function shall clear each bit whose corresponding bit in the file mode creation mask of the process is
set.
If path names a symbolic link, mknod() shall fail and set errno to [EEXIST].
Upon successful completion, mknod() shall mark for update the last data access, last data modification,
and last file status change timestamps of the file. Also, the last data modification and last file status
change timestamps of the directory that contains the new entry shall be marked for update.
Only a process with appropriate privileges may invoke mknod() for file types other than FIFO-special.
The mknodat() function shall be equivalent to the mknod() function except in the case where path
specifies a relative path. In this case the newly created directory, special file, or regular file is
located relative to the directory associated with the file descriptor fd instead of the current working
directory. If the file descriptor was opened without O_SEARCH, the function shall check whether directory
searches are permitted using the current permissions of the directory underlying the file descriptor. If
the file descriptor was opened with O_SEARCH, the function shall not perform the check.
If mknodat() is passed the special value AT_FDCWD in the fd parameter, the current working directory
shall be used and the behavior shall be identical to a call to mknod().
RETURN VALUE
Upon successful completion, these functions shall return 0. Otherwise, these functions shall return −1
and set errno to indicate the error. If −1 is returned, the new file shall not be created.
ERRORS
These functions shall fail if:
EACCES A component of the path prefix denies search permission, or write permission is denied on the
parent directory.
EEXIST The named file exists.
EINVAL An invalid argument exists.
EIO An I/O error occurred while accessing the file system.
ELOOP A loop exists in symbolic links encountered during resolution of the path argument.
ENAMETOOLONG
The length of a component of a pathname is longer than {NAME_MAX}.
ENOENT A component of the path prefix of path does not name an existing file or path is an empty string.
ENOENT or ENOTDIR
The path argument contains at least one non-<slash> character and ends with one or more trailing
<slash> characters. If path names an existing file, an [ENOENT] error shall not occur.
ENOSPC The directory that would contain the new file cannot be extended or the file system is out of file
allocation resources.
ENOTDIR
A component of the path prefix names an existing file that is neither a directory nor a symbolic
link to a directory.
EPERM The invoking process does not have appropriate privileges and the file type is not FIFO-special.
EROFS The directory in which the file is to be created is located on a read-only file system.
The mknodat() function shall fail if:
EACCES fd was not opened with O_SEARCH and the permissions of the directory underlying fd do not permit
directory searches.
EBADF The path argument does not specify an absolute path and the fd argument is neither AT_FDCWD nor a
valid file descriptor open for reading or searching.
ENOTDIR
The path argument is not an absolute path and fd is a file descriptor associated with a non-
directory file.
These functions may fail if:
ELOOP More than {SYMLOOP_MAX} symbolic links were encountered during resolution of the path argument.
ENAMETOOLONG
The length of a pathname exceeds {PATH_MAX}, or pathname resolution of a symbolic link produced an
intermediate result with a length that exceeds {PATH_MAX}.
The following sections are informative.
EXAMPLES
Creating a FIFO Special File
The following example shows how to create a FIFO special file named /home/cnd/mod_done, with read/write
permissions for owner, and with read permissions for group and others.
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/stat.h>
dev_t dev;
int status;
...
status = mknod("/home/cnd/mod_done", S_IFIFO | S_IWUSR |
S_IRUSR | S_IRGRP | S_IROTH, dev);
APPLICATION USAGE
The mkfifo() function is preferred over this function for making FIFO special files.
RATIONALE
The POSIX.1‐1990 standard required that the group ID of a newly created file be set to the group ID of
its parent directory or to the effective group ID of the creating process. FIPS 151‐2 required that
implementations provide a way to have the group ID be set to the group ID of the containing directory,
but did not prohibit implementations also supporting a way to set the group ID to the effective group ID
of the creating process. Conforming applications should not assume which group ID will be used. If it
matters, an application can use chown() to set the group ID after the file is created, or determine under
what conditions the implementation will set the desired group ID.
The purpose of the mknodat() function is to create directories, special files, or regular files in
directories other than the current working directory without exposure to race conditions. Any part of the
path of a file could be changed in parallel to a call to mknod(), resulting in unspecified behavior. By
opening a file descriptor for the target directory and using the mknodat() function it can be guaranteed
that the newly created directory, special file, or regular file is located relative to the desired
directory.
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
None.
SEE ALSO
chmod(), creat(), exec, fstatat(), mkdir(), mkfifo(), open(), umask()
The Base Definitions volume of POSIX.1‐2008, <sys_stat.h>
COPYRIGHT
Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2013 Edition,
Standard for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
Specifications Issue 7, Copyright (C) 2013 by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc
and The Open Group. (This is POSIX.1-2008 with the 2013 Technical Corrigendum 1 applied.) In the event
of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original
IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The original Standard can be obtained online at
http://www.unix.org/online.html .
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