MKNOD(1)

📦 version 0.12.0, in arch rolling

💅 MKNOD(1) — like, the manual page bestie

ok so this is a page from the General Commands Manual and it's literally all about one tiny iconic little command called mknod. buckle up 🎀

✨ NAME ✨

mknod — creates the special file NAME of the given TYPE. that's it. that's the whole job. she's focused. 👑

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

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

🌸 DESCRIPTION 🌸

Create the special file NAME of the given TYPE. yes bestie that's the entire description, the manpage said what it said and moved on 💀

💖 OPTIONS 💖

  • -m, --mode <MODE> — sets the file permission bits to MODE, not a=rw - umask. so like, it overrides that default vibe entirely, no cap.
  • -Z — sets the SELinux security context of each created directory to the default type.
  • --context[=<CTX>] — same energy as -Z 🫶, but if CTX is actually specified, then it sets the SELinux or SMACK security context to CTX.
  • -h, --help — prints help. she's helpful like that ✨
  • -V, --version — prints version. slay.

then the positional girlies:

  • <NAME> — name of the new file.
  • <TYPE> — type of the new file (b, c, u or p).
  • [major] — major file type.
  • [minor] — minor file type.

🔥 EXTRA 🔥

so, mandatory arguments to long options are mandatory for short options too, iykyk. and again, for the people in the back: -m, --mode=MODE sets the 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. like, do not come in with extra numbers when it's a fifo, it's giving unnecessary 😭

and the number parsing? absolutely a vibe check:

  • if MAJOR or MINOR begins with 0x or 0X, it's 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 the deets about the options it supports. don't come for this page when your shell is doing something different, bestie 🙈

⭐ VERSION ⭐

v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0

and that's the whole page, you ate that 🍓💜 — this beauty was dated 2026-09-17, brought to you by v(uutils coreutils) 0.12.0, and honestly? iconic. periodt. ✨👑

📦 where this page comes from