Messages in this thread | | | From | (david parsons) | Subject | Re: PUBLIC CHALLENGE: (was RE: devfs again, (was RE: USB device alloc ation) ) | Date | 8 Oct 1999 14:11:15 -0700 |
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In article <linux.kernel.Pine.BSF.4.05.9910080513480.50036-100000@idiom.com>, M Carling <m@idiom.com> wrote: > >David Parsons wrote: >> Well, the best way to fix the implementation would then be to >> include it in 2.3.x and let the legion of kernel hackers fix the >> problems with it. > >While I'm not sure there is really anything about devfs that needs fixing, >if there is then surely it can and should be fixed before including it in >the kernel.
There's one massive missing feature in devfs: I can't union-mount it over an ext2 fs and have it inherit and propagate permissions and ownerships down to the underlying layer. Devfs works just fine without it (If there were problems with it, I'd not have been able to do my patches to the memory detection code, because major number creep breaks too many things otherwise.)
There are people on the list who, at least from what they write, might be able to put this functionality in without even breaking a sweat, but until devfs is in the kernel (at a whopping 33k space penalty -- 12k in bzImage -- as of 2.3.19) it's a bit optimistic to assume that they'll carefully hand-patch their kernels, add the unionfs, and tweak vfs to fit for every single kernel release from now until the time the core team votes to allow this feature in.
If 2.3 is now feature frozen, this is distressing. It means that I'll have to not port Mastodon to 2.4, but will have to stick with 2.0.28+logo, because I'm not going to upgrade to a kernel that doesn't use such a vital piece of functionality.
____ david parsons \bi/ Of course, I'm fully expecting 2.5 won't support \/ binfmt_aout...
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