Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 4 Aug 1998 19:17:34 +1000 | From | Richard Gooch <> | Subject | Re: devfs compatibility |
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Albert D. Cahalan writes: > Richard Gooch writes: > > Albert D. Cahalan writes: > > >> I know you will hate this, but better now than later... > >> > >> UnixWare 7 has 5-part device names with a c0b0t0d0p0 format. > >> It is just like the new Linux ones, except for the fourth letter. > >> > >> Values of p are: > >> > >> 0 whole disk > >> 1 first PC partition > >> 2 second PC partition > >> 3 third PC partition > >> 4 fourth PC partition > >> > >> Although SCO stops there, notice how much their system is like the > >> new Linux system. It would be great to eliminate the inconsistency > >> while we still can. > > > > We went through this at the beginning of the year. IIRC the format > > you suggest was considered, but rejected for some reasons I don't > > fully recall just now. > > At the beginning of the year, there was no example with a 5-part name. > We had Solaris and something else, both with 4-part names. Since we > needed the 5-part name anyway, we didn't worry about compatibility.
But the reasons I gave in my last message still hold: I think 'u' is more logical than 'd'.
> > Also, there are now too many people using it for these kinds of > > changes to be "painless". SCO will just have to change their > > system: we have the bigger market share ;-) > > SCO is already shipping. How about a transitional config option? > It would let existing devfs users convert at their leisure, > and would be removed before the 2.4 kernel is released.
I'm really reluctant to change this to something that is less logical. Even a transitional change with a backwards compatibility config option is a PITA, in my view. The reasons for change have to be pretty strong. Frankly, being compatible with SCO doesn't seem like a good enough reason. If there is widespread support for changing it, and some of the kernel gurus support the change (with no dissenters), I'll yield.
Regards,
Richard....
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