coreutils: mknod invocation

1 
1 12.5 ‘mknod’: Make block or character special files
1 ===================================================
1 
1 ‘mknod’ creates a FIFO, character special file, or block special file
1 with the specified name.  Synopsis:
1 
1      mknod [OPTION]... NAME TYPE [MAJOR MINOR]
1 
1    Unlike the phrase “special file type” above, the term “special file”
1 has a technical meaning on Unix: something that can generate or receive
1 data.  Usually this corresponds to a physical piece of hardware, e.g., a
1 printer or a disk.  (These files are typically created at
1 system-configuration time.)  The ‘mknod’ command is what creates files
1 of this type.  Such devices can be read either a character at a time or
1 a “block” (many characters) at a time, hence we say there are “block
1 special” files and “character special” files.
1 
1    Due to shell aliases and built-in ‘mknod’ functions, using an
1 unadorned ‘mknod’ interactively or in a script may get you different
1 functionality than that described here.  Invoke it via ‘env’ (i.e., ‘env
1 mknod ...’) to avoid interference from the shell.
1 
1    The arguments after NAME specify the type of file to make:
1 
1 ‘p’
1      for a FIFO
1 
1 ‘b’
1      for a block special file
1 
1 ‘c’
1      for a character special file
1 
1    When making a block or character special file, the major and minor
1 device numbers must be given after the file type.  If a major or minor
1 device number begins with ‘0x’ or ‘0X’, it is interpreted as
1 hexadecimal; otherwise, if it begins with ‘0’, as octal; otherwise, as
1 decimal.
1 
11    The program accepts the following options.  Also see ⇒Common
 options.
1 
1 ‘-m MODE’
1 ‘--mode=MODE’
1      Set the mode of created files to MODE, which is symbolic as in
1      ‘chmod’ and uses ‘a=rw’ as the point of departure.  MODE should
1      specify only file permission bits.  ⇒File permissions.
1 
1 ‘-Z’
1 ‘--context[=CONTEXT]’
1      Without a specified CONTEXT, adjust the SELinux security context
1      according to the system default type for destination files,
1      similarly to the ‘restorecon’ command.  The long form of this
1      option with a specific context specified, will set the context for
1      newly created files only.  With a specified context, if both
1      SELinux and SMACK are disabled, a warning is issued.
1 
1    An exit status of zero indicates success, and a nonzero value
1 indicates failure.
1