lkml.org 
[lkml]   [2003]   [Apr]   [14]   [last100]   RSS Feed
Views: [wrap][no wrap]   [headers]  [forward] 
 
Messages in this thread
/
Date
From
SubjectRe: [PATCH] kdevt-diff

On Mon, 14 Apr 2003, Joel Becker wrote:
>
> On Mon, Apr 14, 2003 at 12:45:36AM +0200, Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl wrote:
> > The structure here is 8+8, except when more bits are
> > present, in which case it is 16+16, except when more bits
> > are present, in which case it is 32+32.
>
> Why complicate things? Is it that bad? We'd all have to know
> about the mess when dealing with userspace.

Well, the thing is, we absolutely _do_ need to have the 8+8 split, in
order to make old devices look the same old way for old binaries.

And the 32+32 split is what the new maximum would be, so ..

The 16+16 split is not strictly necessary, but Andries pointed out to me
that there are filesystems etc external storage that only support a 32-bit
opaque dev_t, so we'd need to marshall the device number _some_ way for
them anyway, and having a standard way to do that is better than having
everybody come up with their own variations.

(My prefernce for the 32-bit version would be 12+20 bits, but it's not a
very strong one, and it doesn't really matter for the kernel proper, so I
think Andries who has been tirelessly working on this for five years or
more gets the final say on it).

Linus

-
To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/

\
 
 \ /
  Last update: 2005-03-22 13:34    [W:0.112 / U:0.124 seconds]
©2003-2020 Jasper Spaans|hosted at Digital Ocean and TransIP|Read the blog|Advertise on this site