Re: [PATCH] remove ide-scsi

Jeff Garzik
2008-12-09T20:07:34Z

Mark Lord wrote:
> Jeff Garzik wrote:
>> Yinghai Lu wrote:
>>> On Sat, Dec 6, 2008 at 3:48 PM, Jeff Garzik <jeff@garzik.org> wrote:
> ..
>>> interesting, so will get /dev/ada instead of /dev/sda?
>>
>> That is an interesting question. The easiest thing is to allocate a
>> new 32-bit block major. But the more compatible (and more
>> controversial) solution is to allocate from the SCSI disk blkmajor space.
> ..
>
> Perhaps "sdx" and "scdx" should simply be redefined as "System disk"
> and "System CD", and moved under block layer ownership from SCSI ?

Yes, precisely. SCSI and libata (and others) would allocate disk/MMC
majors from the block layer.

The biggest problem with this plan is that it introduces a mismatch in
ioctl capabilities, a behavior change from the current situation where
SCSI exports SCSI_IOCTL_SEND_COMMAND in addition to the more universal
SG_IO. Installers and existing clients may rely on this portion of the
Linux application ABI.

Jeff