From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Sat, 19 May 2001 13:45:36 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Sat, 19 May 2001 13:45:26 -0400 Received: from vitelus.com ([64.81.36.147]:26117 "EHLO vitelus.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Sat, 19 May 2001 13:45:20 -0400 Date: Sat, 19 May 2001 10:45:11 -0700 From: Aaron Lehmann To: Erik Mouw Cc: Alexander Viro , Ben LaHaise , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-fsdevel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [RFD w/info-PATCH] device arguments from lookup, partion code Message-ID: <20010519104511.A2648@vitelus.com> In-Reply-To: <20010519184819.M18853@arthur.ubicom.tudelft.nl> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.3.17i In-Reply-To: <20010519184819.M18853@arthur.ubicom.tudelft.nl>; from J.A.K.Mouw@ITS.TUDelft.NL on Sat, May 19, 2001 at 06:48:19PM +0200 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sat, May 19, 2001 at 06:48:19PM +0200, Erik Mouw wrote: > One of the fundamentals of Unix is that "everything is a file" and that > you can do everything by reading or writing that file. But /dev/sda/offset=234234,limit=626737537 isn't a file! ls it and see if it's there. writing to files that aren't shown in directory listings is plain evil. I really don't want to explain why. It's extremely messy and unintuitive. It would be better to do this with a file that does exist, for example writing something to /proc/disks/sda/arguments. Then again, I don't even think much of dynamic file systems in the first place.