Re: udev and devfs - The final word

Andries Brouwer
2004-01-03T04:13:54Z

On Fri, Jan 02, 2004 at 12:42:41PM -0800, Linus Torvalds wrote:

Hi Linus - A happy 2004 !

> Note that one reason I didn't much like the 64-bit versions is that not
> only are they bigger, they also encourage insanity. Ie you'd find SCSI
> people who want to try to encode device/controller/bus/target/lun info
> into the device number.

Weak. "We don't want this power that has good uses because it also
can be used stupidly." That is not Unix-style.

> We should resist any effort that makes the numbers "mean" something. They
> are random cookies. Not "unique identifiers", and not "addresses".

Random cookies? I prefer "arbitrary" over "random". The value plays no role
at all, but it must be unique, preferably stable across reboots.

Andries