Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: DEVFSv50 and /dev/fb? (or /dev/fb/? ???) | Date | Wed, 05 Aug 1998 15:07:48 +0800 | From | David Luyer <> |
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> Richard you missed the whole point. Companies and clients read the FAQ > the run away screaming. All they see are this really "ugly" naming > scheme. > > -- > Terry L. Ridder > Blue Danube Software (Blaue Donau Software) > "We do not write software, we compose it."
Companies and clients use Solaris. I think that's all that needs to be said on that point.
I haven't used devfs. However the two things I hope it would provide are... * dynamically-allocated PTYs beyond 256 * fixed device names for SCSI devices independent of other SCSI devices in the system
These two things would be really good, and if it does it in a less ugly way than Solaris devices (it's almost impossible not to...) I'd be happy. I'd also hope that it has the benefits I've listed below.
I haven't looked at devfs. I don't know how good or bad it is. Personally, I think the solution should be a /proc/dev directory and people should be able to symlink /dev to /proc/dev if they so desire, or symlink only specific devices, or ignore it totally. If /dev is symlinked to /proc/dev, the proc filesystem needs to be able to support a /dev/log socket being created (and remaining until next reboot), and anything else userland does to /dev.
(just in case you haven't noticed how ugly Solaris devices are...) cos; ls -l /dev/sd0a lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 12 Mar 1 1996 /dev/sd0a -> dsk/c0t3d0s0 cos; ls -l /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0 lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 51 Mar 1 1996 /dev/dsk/c0t3d0s0 -> ../../devices/sbus@1,f8000000/esp@0,800000/sd@3,0:a cos; ls -l /devices/sbus@1,f8000000/esp@0,800000/sd@3,0:a brw-r----- 1 root sys 32, 24 Mar 1 1996 /devices/sbus@1,f8000000/esp@0,800000/sd@3,0:a
Now, if devfs is ugly compared to that, then yes, it doesn't really deserve to live. However I believe there is room for a /proc/dev populated only with real devices, with four major advantages; * you can instantly see what is there * faster directory searches * makes things a lot easier for builders of distributions * makes it a lot easier (for the user) when adding a new device/driver
David.
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