Re: [PATCH 1/2] SCSI: Add a SCSI option for persistent device names in Kernel.

Greg KH
2011-04-08T16:13:45Z

On Fri, Apr 08, 2011 at 08:14:12AM -0700, James Bottomley wrote:
> So, while I agree totally with the above: udev and userspace is the way
> to go, I'm not totally opposed to having a non-invasive mechanism for
> indicating a user's preferred name for a device. I think there are a
> couple of ways to do this:
>
> 1. Entirely in userspace: just have udev consult a preferred name
> file and create say /dev/disk/by-preferred. Then have all the
> tools that normally output device information do the same (i.e.
> since real name to preferred name is 1:1, they could all do a
> reverse lookup).
> 2. have a writeable sysfs preferred_name field, either in the
> generic device or just in SCSI. The preferred name would be
> used by outbound only (i.e. kernel dev_printk messages and
> possibly /proc/partitions). All inbound uses of the device
> would come via the standard udev mechanisms
> (i.e. /dev/disk/by-preferred would be the usual symlink). This
> means from the kernel point of view, no renaming has happened.
> We'd just try to print out the preferred name in certain
> circumstances, which should solve most of the described problem.

Either, or both, of those options are fine with me as well.

thanks,

greg k-h