Re: [patch] My AMD IDE driver, v2.7

Horst von Brand
2002-03-13T17:44:20Z

Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@mandrakesoft.com>

[...]

> I -do- know the distrinction between hosts and devices. I think there
> should be -some- way, I don't care how, to filter out those unknown
> commands (which may be perfectly valid for a small subset of special IBM
> drives). The net stack lets me do filtering, I want to sell you on the
> idea of letting the ATA stack do the same thing.

The net stack does filtering for handling traffic from _untrusted_ external
sources, either for local consumtion or as a service for dumb machines
downstream, and as a way of limiting outward access to _untrusted_
users. Here we are talking of the ultimate _trusted_ user (root,
CAP_SYS_RAWIO, whatever). It makes no sense for the _kernel_ to get in the
way. Create a userland proggie for prodding IDE drives, and give it ways to
check (as far as terminal paranoia demands, a little, or not at all) as
desired. Unix ultimate simplicity is all about giving root enough rope to
shoot at his own feet.
--
Dr. Horst H. von Brand User #22616 counter.li.org
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