register_chrdev(9)

register_chrdev9

Register a major number for character devices.

Usage

int register_chrdev(unsigned int major, const char * name, const struct file_operations * fops);

Arguments

major

major device number or 0 for dynamic allocation

name

name of this range of devices

fops

file operations associated with this devices

Overview

If major == 0 this functions will dynamically allocate a major and return its number.

If major > 0 this function will attempt to reserve a device with the given major number and will return zero on success.

Returns a -ve errno on failure.

The name of this device has nothing to do with the name of the device in /dev. It only helps to keep track of the different owners of devices. If your module name has only one type of devices it´s ok to use e.g. the name of the module here.

This function registers a range of 256 minor numbers. The first minor number is 0.

Releases

2 releases since Debian 4.0 (Etch); the text changed 1 time.

  1. 4.0
  2. 5.0

From linux-manual-2.6.26 2.6.26-29 in Debian 5.0 (Lenny). Parsed by carta from the page's man source.