Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 8 Jun 1999 15:49:00 +0100 | From | Matt Aubury <> | Subject | Re: Migrating to larger numbers |
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On Tue, Jun 08, 1999 at 02:10:24PM -0400, Stephen Frost wrote: > Does the kernel automagically load the driver when the device is > detected, or does the user attempt to access a device, which the kernel > then has to go out and see if it exists (And if it can load a module > for it). I've seen it both ways.
I think the simple answer is: the scheme I've outlined doesn't work with on-demand loading drivers. Richard has indicated that devfs can manage both cases which is great. [ Although I've never been entirely sure that demand loading based on accesses to device inodes is the right level of abstraction -- at a higher level it could be accesses to "services" of some kind, which can in turn invoke scripts, install modules etc etc ].
I'm not beating on devfs, I just wanted to tell people writing modular drivers today that if they run in to problems with major numbers then there is an workable approach which is both backward and forward compatible. That's hugely important for anything outside the main kernel distribution.
Cheers, Matt
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