Re: [RFC] New Driver Model for 2.5

Tim Jansen
2001-10-19T18:59:24Z

On Friday 19 October 2001 20:26, Patrick Mochel wrote:
> There are equivalents in USB. But, neither of them are globally unique
> identifiers for the device. That doesn't necessarily mean that one
> couldn't be ascertained from the device; ethernet cards do have MAC
> addresses. But, I don't think that many will have a ID/serial number.
> [...]
> Which leads me to the question: what real benefit does this have? Why
> would you ever want to do a global search in kernel space for a particular
> device?

For example for harddisks. You usually want them to be mounted in the same
directory. Or if you have several printers of the same type connected your
computer you need a way of identifying them. Or for ethernet adapters:
because each is connected to a different network, so you need to assign
different IP addresses to them.

Actually most USB harddisks, printers and network adapters have unique serial
number (you have to be careful though as some claim to have a serial number,
but it is not unique).

bye...