Messages in this thread | | | Date | Fri, 9 Jan 1998 14:39:37 +0100 (CET) | From | Andrea Arcangeli <> | Subject | Re: devlinks: an alternative to devfs |
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On Fri, 9 Jan 1998, Martin von Loewis wrote:
>> Excuse my ignorance (I know that sure I am missing something), but why >> don' t change in /usr/src/linux/include/linux/kdev_t.h from: >> >> typedef unsigned short kdev_t; >> >> to: >> >> typedef unsigned int kdev_t; >> >> and we will have magically space for 16 bit minor and major numbers. Then >> we need to change MINORBITS to 16 and all others 8 to 16... > >For the last part, there has been an acceptable work-around for a >couple of years, so you don't have to recompile all your applications >- only when they try to stat(2) files with majors >256, they'll run >into problems. For the other items, there have been proposed >work-arounds, but no steps have been taken. Since this is a major >change, people discuss using 64 bits for dev_t, to get it right in the >long run. Unfortunately, this further complicates things, as some of >the proposed solutions won't work anymore.
My opinion is to take this hard but right way. devfs is _the_ workaround. `typedef unsinged int kdev_t' is the right thing to do, since unsigned int will define a 64 bit variable after 2038. When more than 4 giga of devices will be connected to linux, linux will be able to recompile all the software and autopatch itself to handle 2^64 devices major and minor numbers in less than one nsec :).
Andrea[s] Arcangeli
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