Character special files

A character special file is a file that provides access to an input/output device. Examples of character special files are: a terminal file, a NULL file, a file descriptor file, or a system console file. Each character special file has a device major number, which identifies the device type, and a device minor number, which identifies a specific device of a given device type. Character special files are customarily defined in /dev; these files are defined with the mknod command. You must have UID(0) to create a character special file. The best way to obtain UID(0) is to be defined to BPX.SUPERUSER FACILITY class. Then issue the su command to switch to UID(0) before issuing the mknod command.

You cannot share character special files in read/write mode among systems participating in a shared file system in a sysplex.