MKNODAT

Section: Linux Programmer's Manual (2)
Updated: 2008-08-21
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NAME

mknodat - create a special or ordinary file relative to a directory file descriptor

SYNOPSIS

#define _ATFILE_SOURCE
#include <fcntl.h>           /* Definition of AT_* constants */
#include <sys/stat.h>

int mknodat(int dirfd, const char *pathname, mode_t mode, dev_t dev);

DESCRIPTION

The mknodat() system call operates in exactly the same way as mknod(2), except for the differences described in this manual page.

If the pathname given in pathname is relative, then it is interpreted relative to the directory referred to by the file descriptor dirfd (rather than relative to the current working directory of the calling process, as is done by mknod(2) for a relative pathname).

If pathname is relative and dirfd is the special value AT_FDCWD, then pathname is interpreted relative to the current working directory of the calling process (like mknod(2)).

If pathname is absolute, then dirfd is ignored.

RETURN VALUE

On success, mknodat() returns 0. On error, -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS

The same errors that occur for mknod(2) can also occur for mknodat(). The following additional errors can occur for mknodat():

EBADF: dirfd is not a valid file descriptor.
ENOTDIR: pathname is relative and dirfd is a file descriptor referring to a file other than a directory.

VERSIONS

mknodat() was added to Linux in kernel 2.6.16.

CONFORMING TO

POSIX.1-2008.

NOTES

See openat(2) for an explanation of the need for mknodat().

COLOPHON

This page is part of release 3.22 of the Linux man-pages project. A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.