From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1753512AbXDDQLq (ORCPT ); Wed, 4 Apr 2007 12:11:46 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752858AbXDDQLp (ORCPT ); Wed, 4 Apr 2007 12:11:45 -0400 Received: from terminus.zytor.com ([192.83.249.54]:46728 "EHLO terminus.zytor.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753368AbXDDQL3 (ORCPT ); Wed, 4 Apr 2007 12:11:29 -0400 Message-ID: <4613CDB6.30306@zytor.com> Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2007 09:09:26 -0700 From: "H. Peter Anvin" User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 (X11/20070212) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Geert Uytterhoeven CC: Russell King , Brad Boyer , Paul Mackerras , David Woodhouse , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linuxppc-dev@ozlabs.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] Stop pmac_zilog from abusing 8250's device numbers. References: <1175610345.2665.15.camel@shinybook.infradead.org> <17938.57292.870224.132415@cargo.ozlabs.ibm.com> <1175642916.10567.24.camel@shinybook.infradead.org> <20070403212928.GA12951@cynthia.pants.nu> <1175644642.10567.31.camel@shinybook.infradead.org> <20070403221002.GA13210@cynthia.pants.nu> <1175648051.10567.61.camel@shinybook.infradead.org> <20070403230908.GA13471@cynthia.pants.nu> <20070404085159.GB13134@flint.arm.linux.org.uk> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Geert Uytterhoeven wrote: > > Oh, and I always thought PTYs were moved to free up more minors for our > zillions of serial ports... > No, PTYs were moved because 64 ptys were woefully inadequate. 256 ptys were enough of a shortage for many users. The use of 16-bit Minix device numbers was a major headache in Linux for many, many years. We didn't get past that one until the 2.6 kernel series. -hpa