[Bug 297082] mknod(2) should support creating FIFOs for POSIX compliance

https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3D297082

            Bug ID: 297082
           Summary: mknod(2) should support creating FIFOs for POSIX
                    compliance
           Product: Base System
           Version: 16.0-CURRENT
          Hardware: Any
                OS: Any
            Status: New
          Severity: Affects Some People
          Priority: ---
         Component: standards
          Assignee: [email protected]
          Reporter: [email protected]

The POSIX spec for mknod[*1] says: =E2=80=9CThe only portable use of mknod(=
) is to
create a FIFO-special file. If mode is not S_IFIFO or dev is not 0, the
behavior of mknod() is unspecified.=E2=80=9D

Whereas the mknod(2) manual page says, for error code `EINVAL`: =E2=80=9CCr=
eating
anything else than a block or character special file (or a whiteout) is not
supported.=E2=80=9D

This leaves no overlap between the spec and FreeBSD. I know mknod is
deprecated, but this is still a portability issue. It just bit me
yesterday[*2], as I'm maintaining ksh93's built-in versions of cp(1) and mv=
(1),
which must deal with special files too.

It seems to me like the fix should be trivial: mknod(2) could simply hand o=
ff
to mkfifo(2) if mode =3D=3D S_IFIFO. I can't imagine a conceivable downside.

[*1] https://pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9799919799/functions/mknod.html
[*2] https://github.com/ksh93/ksh/commit/2b777083445a21e33ff2482b09bc4b4bf

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