Messages in this thread | | | From | tabris <> | Subject | Re: devfs vs. udev | Date | Tue, 7 Oct 2003 10:01:56 -0400 |
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On Tuesday 07 October 2003 08:38 am, Måns Rullgård wrote: > I noticed this in the help text for devfs in 2.6.0-test6: > > Note that devfs has been obsoleted by udev, > <http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/>. > It has been stripped down to a bare minimum and is only provided for > legacy installations that use its naming scheme which is > unfortunately different from the names normal Linux installations > use. > > Now, this puzzles me, for a few of reasons. Firstly, not long ago, > devfs was spoken of as the way to go, and all drivers were rewritten > to support it. Why this sudden change? Secondly, that link only > leads me to a package describing itself as an experimental > proof-of-concept thing, not to be used for anything serious. How can > something that incomplete obsolete a working system like devfs? > Thirdly, udev appears to respond to hotplug events only. How is it > supposed to handle device files not corresponding to any physical > device? Finally, I quite liked the idea of a virtual filesystem for > /dev. It reduced the clutter quite a bit. As for the naming scheme, > it could easily be changed. My word is hardly authoritative, but istr hearing that the original devfs-maintainer has abandoned this code (probably after multiple complaints about it being badly implemented, full of bugs, locking issues/races, etc).
Not having used it with 2.6 yet, I don't know much about it's status in that tree.
So, although devfs may still work, and even be in a better condition than udev (at present); no longer maintained (and little intention of changing) may be considered equivalent to obsolete. -- tabris - Max told his friend that he'd just as soon not go hiking in the hills. Said he, "I'm an anti-climb Max." [So is that punchline.]
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