Messages in this thread | | | Date | Thu, 17 Jun 1999 17:24:21 -0500 (CDT) | From | Daniel Taylor <> | Subject | Re: UUIDs (and devfs and major/minor numbers) |
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On Thu, 17 Jun 1999 tytso@mit.edu wrote:
> Date: Wed, 16 Jun 1999 22:58:00 +1000 > From: Richard Gooch <rgooch@atnf.csiro.au> > > So here we are, arguing about names, because suddenly Ted admitted > that a virtual FS might be good. But then he says he doesn't like the > names. Before that he was denying to the hilt that a virtual FS had > any merit. > > Sigh. Let me try again. The fact that people are arguing about names > means that it is clear the kernel should *not* be dictating what shows > up in /dev. That should be done by a user-mode daemon. Like it or not, > the names in /dev *are* policy, and kernel should not be dictating > policy. Therefore, the kernel should not be deciding what names appear > in /dev. Q.E.D. > The kernel dictates policy. That is the way it is, has been, and always will be. The current policy requires a filesystem with special attributes to be specially set to access devices made available by the kernel.
The policy supplied by devfs gives us device names directly that we may then manipulate freely.
You are used to the current policy, whereas myself, Richard and many others have tried and find that we prefer the new policy.
I personally have a system that switches back and forth regularly for various reasons. It does so quite readily. The two systems are NOT gratuitously incompatible.
I find that I prefer my system in devfs mode.
If I see a device in /dev with devfs I know that there is a real device there. This cuts down immensly on troubleshooting time for device initialization failures.
It also means that I do not have tons of devices hanging out in /dev that have no purpose on my system. (Not to mention making life much easier for EPC/X support, 224 devices on one card, you do not get two cards in with 8/8 Major/Minor without doing some registration tricks that devfs renders more useful).
Daniel Taylor
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