Messages in this thread | | | Date | Tue, 19 Apr 2011 10:34:04 +0200 | From | Alexander Holler <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH 0/1] Implement /dev/byte (a generic byte source similiar to /dev/zero) |
| |
Am 18.04.2011 15:57, schrieb Mike Frysinger: > On Mon, Apr 18, 2011 at 07:37, Alexander Holler wrote: >> I don't know if this patch qualifies for inclusion into the mainline kernel, but >> maybe someone else would be interested in such, so I'm posting it here. >> >> The main idea for that device was to have a source for 0xff to clear FLASH based >> devices. And to make it more generic, I've added the possibility to change the >> default value on a per file descriptor basis. >> >> I don't want to discuss if such a device makes sense or if such should be done >> in userspace only. I like it as a device, otherwise I wouldn't have written it. >> So besides this message, I will not take part in such a discussion. > > cant you do this with cuse ? that would satisfy the "has to be a > device" requirement while keeping it in userspace.
I know almost nothing about cuse, but I assume it should be possible to build such a device with cuse too.
> although, i have a hard time seeing there be a realistic perf diff with: > tr '\000' '\377'< /dev/zero | dd ......
There are many other ways to achieve such in userspace (even without using /dev/zero) and I want to avoid such a discussion.
As for /dev/zero there are many other possible reasons to use such a device, besides filling something with a value. For me it's as reasonable as dev/zero, just that it offers a bit more flexibility and provides another, at least for me useful, default value. Maybe /dev/nzero would have been a good name too. ;)
But I don't really care about inclusion into the kernel, it's just something I had lying around (and needed only marginally work to finalize as a proper patch) and I thought someone else could find it usefull and I should share that here.
Regards,
Alexander Holler
| |