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    SubjectRe: devfs vs. udev
    Date
    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    udev (at present); no longer maintained (and little intention of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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