Re: [BK PATCH] SCSI update for 2.6.3

Greg KH
2004-02-24T22:09:57Z

On Tue, Feb 24, 2004 at 11:48:32PM +0200, Kai Makisara wrote:
> On Tue, 24 Feb 2004, Patrick Mansfield wrote:
>
> ...
> > Current 2.6 kernel default names are of the form: st[0-9]m[0-3][n]
> >
> Actually more like st[0-9]*m[0-9]*[n]
>
> > Current /dev naming is of the form: [n]st[0-9][alm]
> >
> Depends on who's /dev you are looking at.

How about everyone look at devices.txt as that is the LSB standard.

> > Should the st kernel names be changed to map to current /dev names?
> >
> I don't think we should go back to the old names. The intention with the
> "new" names was to make them easier to parse and handle than the old ones.
> The number of modes is not always four. Anyone can compile st with more or
> less modes. Using a number for the mode is naturally extensible. The
> characters at the end of the old names had interpretations that may not be
> correct in all cases (a=alternate, l=low density, m=medium density).
>
> n has been put at the end of the name because now the tape names are
> grouped together in a listing. I know this is a weak justification ;-)
>
> > For udev, even with that we need differing pre and postfix values wrapped
> > around a peristent name.
> >
> If I read udev correctly, it can now parse one number at the end of the
> name. Something like st%md%n and nst%md%n could be used with eight rules
> (where %m is the mode number and %n is the device number). Not very
> convenient. Parsing the st names should really be able to extract at
> least two fields. With an external program, anything can be done. Maybe
> udev can some day do this internally.

Well, udev didn't think that anyone would do such a looney thing in
nameing devices :)

But yes, I'll be glad to fix up udev if you all fix up the tape sysfs
names to match device.txt.

thanks,

greg k-h