Re: /dev/sd*

Mark Lord
2006-08-09T21:40:20Z

Adrian Bunk wrote:
>
> It might be a bit out of the scope of this thread, but why do some many
> subsystems use the /dev/sd* namespace?

Because when those subsystems were first written, the only way one could install
most major distros was to use /dev/hd* or /dev/sd* as the device name.
This is still the case with many distros, though udev is helping get rid
of the hardcoding as time moves on.

So libata, USB, and firewire all were implemented as SCSI low-level drivers,
(rather than as independent block drivers), and thus inherited the /dev/sd* namespace.

They were not implemented as IDE low-level drivers, because the IDE subsystem
was never designed for hot-pluggable devices.

Cheers