Re: udev and devfs - The final word

Paulo Marques
2003-12-31T12:43:33Z

Greg KH wrote:

> Oh yeah, and there are the insolvable race conditions with the devfs
> implementation in the kernel, but I'm not going to talk about them right
> now, sorry. See the linux-kernel archives if you care about them (and
> if you use devfs, you should care...)

I really think you should, because IMHO this is *the* major argument against devfs.

I spent days trying to tweak a mandrake distribution into running from a Compact
Flash card.

The init sequence would fail with I/O errors as if the card had hardware
problems. It took me a long time to realize that it was devfs and devfsd the
culprits. With *exactly* the same setup, but static device nodes the system
worked just fine.

Maybe it was the slow compact flash PIO modes that were triggering the bug, but
the truth was that devfs had bugs in it, and I never saw anyone trying to
correct them later.

So my opinion is: udev is *really* needed and you're doing a great job with it.
Don't let anyone tell you otherwise :)

Just my 2 cents,

--
Paulo Marques - www.grupopie.com

"In a world without walls and fences who needs windows and gates?"