Using character special files

The range of support for file system areas in which character special files can be used is shown in the following table:

Usage¹	OS
Usage¹	HP-UX	Solaris	AIX 5L	Linux
DB	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes²
SDB	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
SYS	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
UTL³	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
WORK	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SVR	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Legend:: Yes: Character special files can be used.; No: Character special files cannot be used.

¹ The entries in the Usage column are HiRDB file system areas specified in the -k option of the pdfmkfs command.

² For the Linux version, the following table shows for each type of RDAREA whether or not character special files can be used:

RDAREA type	Status
Master directory RDAREA	Yes
Data directory RDAREA	Yes
Data dictionary RDAREA	Yes
User RDAREA	Yes
Registry RDAREA	Yes
Data dictionary LOB RDAREA	Yes
User LOB RDAREA	Yes
Registry LOB RDAREA	Yes
List RDAREA	No

Legend:: Yes: Character special files can be used.; No: Character special files cannot be used.

³ The following utility files support character special files:

Backup files
Unload log files
Unload data files
Differential backup management files
Index information files

If character special files are to be used, you must use the pdfmkfs command to make an initial setting that the HiRDB file system area will use character special files. If the character special files are symbolic links, specify the names of the links.

Modify the owner and access privileges of the file system area before making the initial setting. For details about the modifications, see 2.3.6(5) Change the owner and access privileges of the HiRDB file system area (applicable to character special files).

The following is an example of specifying the pdfmkfs command:

pdfmkfs -n 200 -l 20 -k DB /dev/raw/raw1

5.3.2 Using character special files

(1) Range of applicability of character special files

(2) Initial setting