Re: udev and devfs - The final word

"Andrey Borzenkov"
2004-01-08T13:05:23Z

> > >
> > > 2) We are (well, were) running out of major and minor numbers for
> > > devices.
> >
> > devfs tried to fix this one by _getting rid_ of those numbers.
> > Seriously - what are they needed for?
>
> But devfs failed in this. The devfs kernel interface still requires a
> major/minor number to create device nodes.
>
> Hopefully I can work on fixing this up in 2.7.

You must be kidding here. Where exactly do you see devfs fault?

It is not "devfs kernel interface". It is "kernel userland interface"
that requires a major/minor to associate device node with device.

Devfs (in its current shape) is no more than just a repository of
(device node, major/minor) relations. Devfs does not care where
dev number comes from. Driver may hardcode it or request
dynamically from kernel, either way is fine.

Answering your other mail - "devfs kernel interface" provided ability
to request dynamic device number when registering a node. Sounds
very much like what you'd wish. Somebody decided it was evil and
removed it. I personally do not care either way.

regards

-andrey