Re: [PATCH] Symlink /sys/class/block to /sys/block

[Greg KH <greg@kroah.com>]

On Fri, Feb 25, 2005 at 01:35:13AM +0000, Kay Sievers wrote:
> Greg KH <gregkh <at> suse.de> writes:
> 
> > 
> > On Wed, Feb 23, 2005 at 09:43:35AM +0000, Malcolm Rowe wrote:
> > > Greg KH writes: 
> > > 
> > > >>Following the discussion in [1], the attached patch creates 
> > > >>/sys/class/block
> > > >>as a symlink to /sys/block. The patch applies to 2.6.11-rc4-bk7.  
> > > >>
> > > >>Please cc: me on any replies - I'm not subscribed to the mailing list. 
> > > >Hm, your patch is linewrapped, and can't be applied :(
> > > 
> > > Bah, and I did send it to myself first, but I guess my mailer un-flowed it 
> > > for me .  I'll try to find a better mailer. 
> > > 
> > > >But more importantly:
> > > >>static void disk_release(struct kobject * kobj)
> > > >
> > > >Did you try to remove a disk (like a usb device) and see what happens
> > > >here?  Hint, this isn't the proper place to remove the symlink...
> > > 
> > > Er, yeah. Oops. 
> > > 
> > > *Is* there a sensible place to remove the symlink from, though?  Nobody 
> > > seems to call subsystem_unregister(&block_subsys), which is the place I'd 
> > > expect to add a call to, and I can't see anything that's otherwise 
> > > obvious... 
> > 
> > If the subsystem is never unregistered, then don't worry about undoing
> > the symlink.
> 
> This symlink will break a lot of applications out there. If there is not a
> _very_ good reason for it, we should not do that.

People seem to want it for some odd reason, I haven't seen a good reason
yet though, let alone a working patch :)

> The "dev" file unfortunately does not tell you if it's a char or block
> device node and that should be solved by something better than matching a
> magic string somewhere in the middle of a devpath.

Use the subsystem value.  If it's "block", it's a block device,
otherwise it's a char device.  Don't we already do this in udev today?

> The hotplug events will still have the /block/* devpath, so this symlink
> will give us nothing than problems.

It will not give hotplug programs issues, as the block devpath still
remains the same.

thanks,

greg k-h