clone(7)                                                              clone(7)



NAME
     clone - open any minor device on a STREAMS driver

DESCRIPTION
     clone is a STREAMS software driver that finds and opens an unused minor
     device on another STREAMS driver.  The minor device passed to clone
     during the open is interpreted as the major device number of another
     STREAMS driver for which an unused minor device is to be obtained.  Each
     such open results in a separate stream to a previously unused minor
     device.

     The clone driver consists solely of an open function.  This open function
     performs all of the necessary work so that subsequent system calls
     (including close(2)) require no further involvement of clone.

     clone generates an ENXIO error, without opening the device, if the minor
     device number provided does not correspond to a valid major device, or if
     the driver indicated is not a STREAMS driver.

CAVEATS
     Multiple opens of the same minor device cannot be done through the clone
     interface.  Executing stat(2) on the filesystem node for a cloned device
     yields a different result from executing fstat(2) using a file descriptor
     obtained from opening the node.

SEE ALSO
     log(7).




























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