[plug] I have deleted /dev/lp1.. how do I replace it?

[Matt Kemner]

On Thu, 25 Feb 1999, Tamara Thompson wrote:

> cd /dev
> ./MAKEDEV lp1

MAKEDEV of course is by far the easiest way to do it, however on occasions
either MAKEDEV does not know how to make the device you want, or you need
to call it with a special incantation to make it create the file you want.
(I had some hassles with the ISDN device files)
In this case, if you happen to have a copy of the kernel source lying
about, take a look at Documentation/devices.txt
This is a list of official major/minor numbers (maintained by HPA)

> Anyway, I will find out what MAKEDEV actually does.  

MAKEDEV is just a shell script (you can view it with less, or any other
standard text viewer) that has been told about lots of different
major/minor pairs so it knows what to create (with mknod) when you pass it
a parameter.

However since it can often be several versions older than
devices.txt, it may not know about some devices.
I would have thought it might have been a better idea to teach
MAKEDEV how to parse devices.txt (if it can find it) but I guess there
must be a valid reason it can't. (most likely because not everyone has a
copy of the kernel source lying about their HDD)

 - Matt
P.S. vriendelijke groeten to your friend in Groningen.