clone(7)clone(7)NAMEclone - Opens a major and minor device pair on a STREAMS driver
DESCRIPTION
The clone driver is a "pass through" device driver that allows other
drivers to select unique minor device numbers on each open. In effect,
the driver passes an open operation through to the other driver. This
mechanism allows for multiple instantiations of a driver through a sin‐
gle file system node.
The name parameter specifies the name of the special device driver to
be opened. The clone driver calls the open routine of the other driver
with flags that specify a clone open, and sets up the new instantiation
using the returned major/minor pair. The new major number is the minor
number of the clonable entry, and the minor number has been dynamically
selected.
If the clone driver has an invalid minor number, or if the driver indi‐
cated is not a clonable driver, an error occurs.
The master devices for pseudoterminals are examples of clonable drivers
(see the pty(7) reference page).
SEE ALSO
Functions: fstat(2), open(2)
Interfaces: pty(7)clone(7)