From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Tue, 15 May 2001 16:18:28 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Tue, 15 May 2001 16:18:18 -0400 Received: from neon-gw.transmeta.com ([209.10.217.66]:30471 "EHLO neon-gw.transmeta.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Tue, 15 May 2001 16:18:08 -0400 Message-ID: <3B018ECF.A9FEAE8@transmeta.com> Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 13:17:19 -0700 From: "H. Peter Anvin" Organization: Transmeta Corporation X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.76 [en] (X11; U; Linux 2.4.5-pre1-zisofs i686) X-Accept-Language: en, sv, no, da, es, fr, ja MIME-Version: 1.0 To: James Simmons CC: Linus Torvalds , Alexander Viro , Alan Cox , Neil Brown , Jeff Garzik , Linux Kernel Mailing List Subject: Re: LANANA: To Pending Device Number Registrants In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org James Simmons wrote: > > > > fd = open("/dev/fd0/colourspace", O_RDWR); > > Yipes!! I have to say UNIX has a tendency to teach you ioctl is the only > way. I have never thought outside of the box nor see anyone else in this > manner. This is absolutely brillant!!! I can see alot of possibilties with > this. > By the way, since this is of general interest... I asked the POSIX people if there was anything in the Austin (Unix 2002) draft that would prohibit this behaviour. The response was more or less of the form "we are not really sure if it's within the spec, but it is perfectly reasonable." The (only) issue seems to be whether or not the requirement to deliver ENOTDIR in cases like this is absolute or if this is a permissible extension. The way I interpret what I got back was pretty much "go for it and don't worry about it." -hpa -- at work, in private! "Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot." http://www.zytor.com/~hpa/puzzle.txt