Messages in this thread | | | From | (david parsons) | Subject | Re: DEVFSv50 and /dev/fb? (or /dev/fb/? ???) | Date | 4 Aug 1998 20:10:31 -0700 |
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In article <linux.kernel.Pine.LNX.3.96.980805022712.16942B-100000@dragon.bogus>, Andrea Arcangeli <arcangeli@mbox.queen.it> wrote: >On Tue, 4 Aug 1998, Shawn Leas wrote: > >>Specifically, what is ugly about it? Is it intrinsic in nature, or >>something fixable? Is the design flawed? Then how? Back up your > >I don' t know about the Theodore idea of ugly but I agree with him. _I_ >see devfs flowed by its start. I just explained my thoughts about devfs >some month ago before the first release of devfs. devfs is a workaround. >We would not need devfs at all if the kdev_t would be a 64 bit unsigned >integer. > >Instead of reply me that with devfs the root device _can_ be mounted >readonly and we _can_ boot with a root fs with no major/minor number >support, please tell me that you need to use these features.
I need to use those features.
With a devfs (in 2.0.x; 2.1.x is too big[1] :-( ) I get back 12k on Mastodon 1.44mb install floppies; I also get a cleaner way of telling what devices are on the system than my current scheme of starting a logger thread and weeding through the kernel messages to see if /dev/ttyS0, /dev/lp, and so on exist. 1.44mb is not very much room to put install and recovery systems on, and it's cheaper to drop magic filesystems like /dev into the kernel which can be compressed without doing screwy things to the filesystem.
Plus with devfs I might be able to fulfill my dream of having a Linux install/recovery disk on a MS-DOS formatted floppy.
Not having to chase major and minor numbers is also a compelling reason for a devfs.
____ david parsons \bi/ [1: I use libc 4.8.0 instead of libc 5.0.9 for \/ my install floppies because 4.8.0 makeholes to 100kb less than libc 5.0.9. I NEEEEED /dev back.]
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