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From: guy@auspex.auspex.com (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.questions
Subject: Re: mkfifo (vs. mknod)
Keywords: mkfifo
Message-ID: <3574@auspex.auspex.com>
Date: 29 Jun 90 20:26:32 GMT
References: <5827@aplcen.apl.jhu.edu>
Distribution: comp.unix.questions
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 9

>is the basic difference here that mknod creates
>FIFOs for superuser only and mkfifo is available
>to all users?

I should hope not; S5 as supplied by AT&T (BSD doesn't have FIFOs yet,
although I expect it to in 4.4BSD if they make it POSIX-compliant)
allows anybody to use "mknod" (either the command or the routine) to
make FIFOs, although only the super-user can make other kinds of special
files.  "mkfifo()" in S5 is probably just a wrapper around "mknod()".