makedev(3)                                            Library Functions Manual                                           makedev(3)

NAME
       makedev, major, minor - manage a device number

LIBRARY
       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS
       #include <sys/sysmacros.h>

       dev_t makedev(unsigned int maj, unsigned int min);

       unsigned int major(dev_t dev);
       unsigned int minor(dev_t dev);

DESCRIPTION
       A  device  ID consists of two parts: a major ID, identifying the class of the device, and a minor ID, identifying a specific
       instance of a device in that class.  A device ID is represented using the type dev_t.

       Given major and minor device IDs, makedev() combines these to produce a device ID, returned as the  function  result.   This
       device ID can be given to mknod(2), for example.

       The major() and minor() functions perform the converse task: given a device ID, they return, respectively, the major and mi‐
       nor components.  These macros can be useful to, for example, decompose the device IDs in the structure returned by stat(2).

ATTRIBUTES
       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

       ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │Interface                                                                                        │ Attribute     │ Value   │
       ├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │makedev(), major(), minor()                                                                      │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

STANDARDS
       The makedev(), major(), and minor() functions are not specified in POSIX.1, but are present on many other systems.

NOTES
       These interfaces are defined as macros.  Since glibc 2.3.3,  they  have  been  aliases  for  three  GNU-specific  functions:
       gnu_dev_makedev(),  gnu_dev_major(), and gnu_dev_minor().  The latter names are exported, but the traditional names are more
       portable.

       The BSDs expose the definitions for these macros via <sys/types.h>.  Depending on the version, glibc  also  exposes  defini‐
       tions for these macros from that header file if suitable feature test macros are defined.  However, this behavior was depre‐
       cated in glibc 2.25, and since glibc 2.28, <sys/types.h> no longer provides these definitions.

SEE ALSO
       mknod(2), stat(2)

Linux man-pages 6.03                                         2022-12-15                                                  makedev(3)