clone(7)               DEVICES AND MODULES               clone(7)



NAME
     clone - open any major/minor device pair on a STREAMS driver

DESCRIPTION
     clone is a STREAMS software driver that finds and  opens  an
     unused  major/minor  device  on another STREAMS driver.  The
     major device number passed to clone during open  corresponds
     to  the clone driver and the minor device number corresponds
     to the target driver.   Each  open  results  in  a  separate
     stream to a previously unused major/minor device.  The clone
     driver consists solely of an open function.  This open func-
     tion  performs  all of the necessary work so that subsequent
     system  calls  [including  close(2)]  require   no   further
     involvement  of  clone.  clone will generate an ENXIO error,
     without opening the device, if the major/minor device number
     provided  does not correspond to a valid major/minor device,
     or if the driver indicated is not a STREAMS driver.

SEE ALSO
     log(7).
     Programmer's Guide: STREAMS.

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



























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