DEV_MKDB(8) System Manager's Manual DEV_MKDB(8)

dev_mkdb — create /dev database

dev_mkdb

The dev_mkdb command creates a hash(3) access method Berkeley database in “/var/run/dev.db” which contains the names of all of the character and block special files in the “/dev” directory, using the file type and the st_rdev field as the key.

Keys are a structure containing a mode_t followed by a dev_t, with any padding zeroed out. The former is the type of the file (st_mode & S_IFMT), the latter is the st_rdev field.

/dev
device directory
/var/run/dev.db
database file

ps(1), stat(2), dbopen(3), devname(3), kvm_nlist(3), ttyname(3), kvm_mkdb(8)

The dev_mkdb command appeared in 4.3BSD-Net/2.

OpenBSD 7.8 August 4, 2022 DEV_MKDB(8)