From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S265229AbTLaWBM (ORCPT ); Wed, 31 Dec 2003 17:01:12 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S265230AbTLaWBL (ORCPT ); Wed, 31 Dec 2003 17:01:11 -0500 Received: from rrcs-se-24-123-187-193.biz.rr.com ([24.123.187.193]:18075 "EHLO max.bungled.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S265229AbTLaWBI (ORCPT ); Wed, 31 Dec 2003 17:01:08 -0500 Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 17:01:07 -0500 From: Nathan Conrad To: Rob Love Cc: Pascal Schmidt , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Greg KH Subject: Re: udev and devfs - The final word Message-ID: <20031231220107.GC11032@bungled.net> References: <18Cz7-7Ep-7@gated-at.bofh.it> <20031231192306.GG25389@kroah.com> <1072901961.11003.14.camel@fur> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1072901961.11003.14.camel@fur> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.4i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org One thing that I'm confused about with respect to device files is how kernel arguments are supposed to work. Now, we _seem_ to have a mish-mash of different ways to tell the kernel which device to open as a console, which device to use as a suspend device, etc.... Now, all of the device names are being migrated to userland. How is the kernel supposed to determine which device to use when it is told use /dev/hda3 or /dev/ide/host0/something/part3 as the suspend partition? The kernel no longer knows to which device this string this device is connected. (I have not looked into how these parameters are parsed; this is pure speculation) One solution that I see if the device names are totally removed from the kernel is specifying these parameters as sysfs paths. Would this work? Or is there a better way? -Nathan On Wed, Dec 31, 2003 at 03:19:22PM -0500, Rob Love wrote: > On Wed, 2003-12-31 at 14:23, Greg KH wrote: > > > What benefit would there be in "random" numbers? More compressed number > > space by giving out numbers sequentially? > > That is one advantage. > > > Or less having to work with the numbers because they become just > > cookies and never need to be inspected except in very small parts of > > the kernel? > > Yup, especially this one. It is not so much "let's make the device > numbers random" but "let's just not care what they are." > > We can get to the point where we don't even need the explicit concept of > device numbers, but just "any old unique value" to use as a cookie. The > kernel can pull that number from anywhere, and notify user-space via > udev ala hotplug. > > Rob Love > > > - > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/ -- Nathan J. Conrad Campus phone #5930 301 Scott hall, UNC Charlotte http://bungled.net GPG: F4FC 7E25 9308 ECE1 735C 0798 CE86 DA45 9170 3112