Re: [PATCH] dev_t [1/3]

Andrew Morton
2003-03-19T00:05:14Z

Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl wrote:
>
> From: Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@pobox.com>
>
> > So, kill cdev_cachep, cdev_cache_init,
> > cdfind, cdget, cdput, inode->i_cdev, struct char_device.
> > All of this is dead code today.
>
> You're also removing refcount code... why not fix it up instead?
>
> I agree your patch is mostly correct from a "today" standpoint,
> but from a long term standpoint ...
>
> Your remarks have been made a few times already, and each
> time I answered that my objective was to give Linux 2.6
> a 32-bit dev_t, and my objective is not to do work that
> is not for 2.6 but for 2.8.
>

What does that whole hash/cache/refcount setup in there actually do, and why
can we afford to remove it for 2.6?