CLONE(7)            RISC/os Reference Manual             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 will generate an ENXIO error, without opening the dev-
     ice, 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 file
     system node for a cloned device yields a different result
     from executing fstat using a file descriptor obtained from
     opening the node.

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























                        Printed 11/19/92                   Page 1