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SubjectRe: UUIDs (and devfs and major/minor numbers)
 > devfs uses the hardware address, which works for me...

But that means if you change order of how disks plug into a scsi bus,
or you move a disk from one to another bus, names change. That's ok for
you?

that's not a devfs issue. Linux currently doesn't any mechanism for
attaching labels to volumes, which imo would be the cleanest way. what
devfs (or rather the kernel) can currently provide, physical locations,
is a damm sight better than the old way, order of detection.

Perhaps one problem here is that some folks are also thinking about how
to handle this additional problem and how devfs will or will not
interact
with any solution.

it sounds like you've never really looked at devfs. Devfs merely
implements a namespace, it doesn't determine the namespace. ie:

/dev/sd/c1b0t5u0

isn't determined within the devfs code. But rather the driver registers
a name with devfs. Devfs is just a facilitator. how the name is
determined is done mostly by the driver - not devfs! (if only people
would grasp this...). Devfs just controls device entries, it knows
nothing about what/where the devices actually are.

So if the (scsi?) disk driver was able to recognise volumes
independantly of location, then it would be able to register a volume as
a device. Unfortunately the driver doesn't have that capability, so the
best it can do is register according to physical location, (which is
better than boot order).

It's distressing that so many people focus on the namespace thereby
totally missing the point of devfs.. if namespace is such a big issue it
can be changed. The point is devfs provides a simple clean structure
with which we can build a virtual /dev.

If people could point out weaknesses/problems/improvements with what
devfs *provides* rather than on little nitpicks like names (which can
easily be changed), then maybe we'd stop going round in circles about
/dev/adaptect2940 this or /devices/whatever, and actually come to a
sensible agreement.

regards,

-paul.

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