Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: Lots of SCSI-disks, how?! | From | Ulrich Drepper <> | Date | 21 Apr 1998 19:17:19 -0700 |
| |
Richard Gooch <Richard.Gooch@atnf.CSIRO.AU> writes:
> There's still plently of people using libc 5 (and for good > reasons!). I think there's even people using libc 4. If 2.3 were to > introduce a 64 bit dev_t, it would stuff these people up, I think. > While you could perhaps argue that libc 4 is so ancient that it > doesn't have to be supported with kernel 2.3, I don't think libc 5 > compatibility should be broken yet.
But even if you change dev_t to only 32bits you will break libc5 compatibility. You either stick with 16bits or make the new functionality only available when using glibc. Please note I haven't said drop support for libc5. Backward-compatibility can be achieved to avoid using for a new device number a device where all bits beside the first 16 are set. I.e., if you use
0000 0000 0000 XXXX -> old device
YYYY YYYY ZZZZ XXXX -> with YYYY YYYY ZZZZ != 0000 0000 0000 and YYYY YYYY = major ZZZZ XXXX = minor
you can use libc5 with the old numbering.
-- Uli ---------------. drepper at gnu.org ,-. 1325 Chesapeake Terrace Ulrich Drepper \ ,-------------------' \ Sunnyvale, CA 94089 USA Cygnus Solutions `--' drepper at cygnus.com `------------------------
- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu
| |