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SubjectRe: UUIDs (and devfs and major/minor numbers)
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In message <Pine.LNX.4.05.9906191036140.26257-100000@mhw.ULib.IUPUI.Edu>, "Mark
H. Wood" writes:
+-----
| On Sat, 19 Jun 1999, Brandon S. Allbery KF8NH wrote:
| > Someone please explain:
| >
| > (1) why exporting this information from the kernel in the arguably most
| > useful form --- a virtual filesystem --- is more evil than exporting it
| > as e.g. a /proc file or a generator sysctl();
|
| You have to parse filesystem paths if you want to understand them. You
| have to either agree on a one-size-fits-all naming scheme, or use multiple
+--->8

But you have to parse any other naming scheme, including a sysctl()-based
one. And the kernel can't reasonably generate every possible representation
of the device tree, whether by devfs, SYS$GETDVI(), /proc files, etc.

| devfs detractor either; at most I've asked people to consider whether a
| filesystem hierarchy is really the most appropriate representation for the
| various information that we all want.
+--->8

Why wouldn't it be? In its most generalized form, a filesystem is a
hierarchical database used for kernel-to-userspace communication, which is
why Plan 9 generalized it to namespaces and why there is e.g. /proc. It
seems ridiculously narrow to restrict filesystems to handling only real
"files": where do you draw the line? Network filesystems? Devices
themselves (shades of DEC OSes)?

--
brandon s. allbery [os/2][linux][solaris][japh] allbery@kf8nh.apk.net
system administrator [WAY too many hats] allbery@ece.cmu.edu
carnegie mellon / electrical and computer engineering KF8NH
We are Linux. Resistance is an indication that you missed the point.

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