4.1cBSD/usr/man/man8/makedev.8

.TH MAKEDEV 8 "4 March 1983"
.UC 4
.SH NAME
MAKEDEV \- make system special files
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B /dev/MAKEDEV 
.IR device ...
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I MAKEDEV
is a shell script normally used to install
special files.  It resides in the 
.I /dev
directory, as this is the normal location of special files.
Arguments to 
.I MAKEDEV
are usually of the form
.IR device-name ?
where
.I device-name
is one of the supported devices listed in section 4 of the
manual and ``?'' is a logical unit number (0-9).  A few
special arguments create assorted collections of devices and are
listed below.
.TP
.B std
Create the
.I standard
devices for the system; e.g. /dev/console, /dev/tty.
The VAX-11/780 console floppy device, /dev/floppy, is
also created with this entry.  For machines with a TU58
console cassette (or cassettes), the 
.IR tu?
entry should be specified after this entry.
.TP
.B local
Create those devices specific to the local site.  This
request causes the shell file 
.I /dev/MAKEDEV.local
to be executed.  Site specific commands, such as those
used to setup dialup lines as ``ttyd?'' should be included
in this file.
.PP
Since all devices are created using 
.IR mknod (8),
this shell script is useful only to the super-user.
.SH DIAGNOSTICS
Either self-explanatory, or generated by one of the programs
called from the script.  Use ``sh -x MAKEDEV'' in case of
trouble.
.SH "SEE ALSO"
intro(4),
intro(4V),
config(8),
mknod(8)
.SH BUGS
When more than one piece of hardware of the same ``kind'' is
present on a machine (for instance, a dh and a dmf), naming
conflicts arise.