update needed to mknod man page

Kristin E Thomas <[email protected]>
Newsgroups gmane.comp.gnu.fileutils.bugs
Message-ID <[email protected]>



I work in documentation in the Linux Technology Center at IBM, and I was
assigned a bug related to the mknod man page.  It looks like a line should
be added to the description explaining that the permission mode is
processed as an octal (like in the description for chmod).  I have attached
the bug description for our bugzilla below.  I was going to send a patch,
but the man page was generated from the command code with help2man, so I
can't edit the man page.

Thanks,
Kristin

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Kristin Thomas
Linux Information Development
Linux Technology Center
Ph. (512) 838-4546, T/L 678-4546
Bldg. 908 1D036
[email protected]


>From bugzilla.linux.ibm.com:

Description:
Hardware Environment:z800/2015-F20-FICON

Software Environment:SLES8-RC6


Steps to Reproduce:
1.issue mknod command with leading zeroes for minor number
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbn b 254 004
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbn1 b 254 005
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbn2 b 254 006
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbn3 b 254 007
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbo b 254 008
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbo1 b 254 009
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbo2 b 254 010
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbo3 b 254 011
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbp b 254 012
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbp1 b 254 013
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbp2 b 254 014
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbp3 b 254 015
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbq b 254 016
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbq1 b 254 017
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbq2 b 254 018
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbq3 b 254 019
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbr b 254 020
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbr1 b 254 021
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbr2 b 254 022
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbr3 b 254 023
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbs b 254 024
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbs1 b 254 025
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbs2 b 254 026
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbs3 b 254 027
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbt b 254 028
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbt1 b 254 029
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbt2 b 254 030
mknod -m 660 /dev/dasdbt3 b 254 031

2.
3.

Actual Results:
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   0 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbo
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   0 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbo1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   8 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbo2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   9 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbo3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  10 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbp
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  11 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbp1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  12 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbp2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  13 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbp3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  14 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbq
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  15 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbq1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   1 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbq2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   1 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbq3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  16 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbr
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  17 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbr1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  18 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbr2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  19 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbr3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  20 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbs
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  21 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbs1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  22 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbs2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  23 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbs3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   2 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbt
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   2 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbt1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  24 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbt2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  25 Dec  5 16:49 dasdbt3

Expected Results:
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   8 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbo
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,   9 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbo1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  10 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbo2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  11 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbo3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  12 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbp
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  13 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbp1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  14 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbp2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  15 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbp3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  16 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbq
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  17 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbq1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  18 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbq2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  19 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbq3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  20 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbr
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  21 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbr1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  22 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbr2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  23 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbr3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  24 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbs
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  25 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbs1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  26 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbs2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  27 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbs3
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  28 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbt
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  29 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbt1
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  30 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbt2
brw-rw----    1 root     root     254,  31 Dec  6 09:16 dasdbt3

Additional Information:
expected results generated by same commands with all leading zeroes removed
when you have to add nodes for 128 devices this behavior will be seen if
you use simple scripts - man/info pages does not say not to and it
intermittently seems to work

------- Additional Comment #1 From Raj([email protected]) 2002-12-10
06:43 -------
mknod works as expected. Any number with a leading zero is parsed as an
'octal'
number. So number '16' would be number '16' , but number '016' would turn
out
to be number '14' in decimal.

This is not a bug. It works the same way on i386 machines too. To add some
more,

doing mknod b foo 212 0x12 , would result in a minor number of '18' as it
is
parsed as a hex value.

Thank you !

------- Additional Comment #2 From Dave Fosmire([email protected])
2002-12-10 09:54 -------
if "mknod works as expected. Any number with a leading zero is parsed as an

'octal'
number. So number '16' would be number '16' , but number '016' would turn
out
to be number '14' in decimal." then it would help the casual observer - one
who
uses the man or info pages - if this was documented there.  I believe it is
RTFM not RTSC - I did checn the man/info pages (which are identical) prior
to submitting this.

------- Additional Comment #3 From Raj([email protected]) 2002-12-10
23:56 -------
I have checked up with the Redhat-8.0 on an i386 box. The man pages/ info
pages
do not list out the seen behaviour.

Yes, it is a Documentation bug. I had a look at the source code of 'mknod'
which a part of fileutils package. The program very much is expecting input
of
octal & hex numbers and is handling them by calling xstrtoumax() which is
another routine internal to fileutils package.

This has to be documented. I have checked the documentation of 'chmod' and
it
clearly specfies that octal numbering should be used. The same way 'mknod'
has
to documented accordingly.

Khoa:
Please advise me on how to proceed with documentation issues ?

Thank you !
lmpx.com only provides a reader for public news (NNTP) servers. It is not affiliated with the servers or forums shown here and is not responsible for the content of articles, which is written by their respective authors.