Messages in this thread |  | | Subject | Re: possible SCSI device numbering solution | From | Benny Amorsen <> | Date | 27 Jun 1996 00:33:52 +0200 |
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>>>>> "HPA" == H Peter Anvin <hpa@freya.yggdrasil.com> writes:
HPA> POSIX.1 does require that dev_t is an arithmetric type, which HPA> means that a 64-bit dev_t would require that Linux permits "long HPA> long" in the offical Linux APIs for 32-bit machines. Since "long HPA> long" is a GCC-ism, it seems to me Linus has been avoiding making HPA> it mandatory in user space. There are a few more issues; a 32-bit HPA> dev_t would maintain the alignment of struct stat, which would HPA> make backward compatibility easier to implement.
It could be done by making long 64 bit on all linux machines. I would absolutely _love_ that, but I doubt it would be universally liked among linux developers. But maybe as an option?
It would not break Standard C. It would not break POSIX. It would break a lot of programs. *sigh*
Benny
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