Messages in this thread | | | From | ketil@ii ... | Subject | Re: PROPOSAL: /proc/dev | Date | 07 Jan 1998 10:03:21 +0100 |
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o.r.c@p.e.l.l.p.o.r.t.l.a.n.d.o.r.u.s (david parsons) writes:
> I want a devfs so that I can have the kernel tell the outside world what > devices exist. For things like ptys, I don't particularly care about > a devfs -- the existing scheme is sufficient -- but for serial, > parallel, ide, and scsi devices I'd much rather mount a magic > filesystem instead of having to root through /proc/kmsg to find out
Just a thought as to the configurability of devfs - ya know, number of ptys, ownership, permissions, multiple (chroot) /dev directories etc - couldn't the devfs be an overlay (a la unionfs) on top of a regular /dev directory?
a) devfs can copy permissions and stuff from the underlying directory b) you could (conceivably?) mknod and chmod "through" the devfs c) you could boot a non-devfs kernel and expect it to work d) each device (driver) could decide what devices to expose from the underlying directory - e.g. ptys would just pass through, disks would only show what actually exists and provide rw------ devices for volumes that don't exist "below", other devices might choose to ignore it entirely, etc e) you wouldn't depend on messy config files in /etc or anywhere to get stuff working.
Just a thought.
~kzm -- If I haven't seen further, it is by standing in the footprints of giants
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