Re: [BK PATCH] devfs cleanups for 2.5.29

Richard Gooch
2002-07-30T23:08:47Z

Greg KH writes:
> Hi,
>
> When devfs came alone, it created devfs_[un]register_chrdev and
> devfs_[un]register_blkdev, which required that all drivers be changed to
> be compatible with devfs. This change has been bothering a lot of people
> for quite some time :)
>
> These two small changesets (patches to follow this email) fix that
> problem by removing these functions, and having the original
> [un]register_chrdev and [un]register_blkdev ask devfs if the operation
> should be performed _if_ devfs is currently compiled into the kernel.
> No functionality is changed, but the kernel code base is reduced, and we
> are back to a common API.

Your patch misses the reason why I created those functions: some
drivers had to always register with the major table. With your
"fixups", those drivers will break when "devfs=only" is passed in. If
you first fix the drivers so that they work without an entry in the
major table, then your patch is safe to apply.

> Linus, please pull from:
> bk://linuxusb.bkbits.net/devfs-2.5

Linus, please don't.

Regards,

Richard....
Permanent: rgooch@atnf.csiro.au
Current: rgooch@ras.ucalgary.ca