Re: Larger dev_t

Gerry
2001-03-25T17:56:23Z

Ok, i don't really know much about the kernel at all, but here's my opinion
anyway..

To use 64bit pids when 32bit is enough just to "make things easier" doesn't
sound like a good idea to me. Eventually it might wrap around (fx. as on that
supercomputer Jamie Lokier talked about) to overwrite running processes, and
cause death and destruction. Bye bye stability.

Even if it doesn't wrap, using double the space necessarry for something
every single process has is a waste of space. Linux is supposed to be able to
run on a large range of systems, and some of them don't have that kind of
luxury. Sure, the kernel can be modified for those (rare) cases, but still,
using something that's not necessary just sounds like bad practice to me..

Never assume luxury..

Gerry