Re: PATCH: cdrecord: avoiding scsi device numbering for ide devices

Julien Oster
2004-08-08T18:55:01Z

Stephan von Krawczynski <skraw@ithnet.com> writes:

>> > > If you do not fix this, you just verify that Linux does not like it's
>> > > users. Linux users like to call cdrecord -scanbus and they like to see
>> > > _all_ SCSI devices from a single call to cdrecord.
[...]

> To add a pure users' comment to the story:

Considering cdrecord, I am also a pure user. And my reaction when I
first used it and discovered the -scanbus/dev=id,id,id thingy was not
very pleasent. I was very confused by the fact that I couldn't just
give it /dev/whatever like I was used to with, well, everything
else. (I'm not only used to it, /dev/... is also how Linux works, from
my pov. That's just why it exists.)

I thought a minute about it and came to the immediate conclusion:
there's something wrong with the kernel interface, which prevents
cdrecord from just using the device file. I figured that someone would
fix it very soon and accepted the dev=id,id,id solution temporarily
(without really ever getting used to it).

Now I learned that it is a deliberate design issue with cdrecord and I
am left stunned.

Even before knowing that (i.e., some days ago) I still hated to
specify dev=id,id,id.

> Maybe you should not overestimate cdrecord as a tool (like its author obviously
> does sometimes). At least for DVD there are well-working alternatives.

Oh yes. I suspect you're talking of growisofs? I'm not kidding when I
tell you that I was really thrilled when I discovered that it allows
me to specify the device file. Remember, at that point I still thought
the dev=... was a bug and I was glad that the growisofs author found a
way to fix or workaround this bug (that's what I thought).

Since growisofs was doing a nice, straightforward job for me, I tried
to burn CD-Rs instead of DVDs with it, but unfortunately this didn't
work.

> If Joerg feels a better home on Solaris, so be it. It's his right to decide for
> solaris, just as it is a users' right to decide against cdrecord.

Well, do you know any alternatives for CD-Rs? I'm normally all the
"f* it, I'm just writing the tool myself and then I know it's doing
what I want"-guy, but I really don't feel the urge to get into
that ATAPI/burning stuff pressed on me.

Regards,
Julien