Re: [PATCH] new system call mknod64

viro
2003-04-21T18:09:57Z

On Mon, Apr 21, 2003 at 07:10:13PM +0100, Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> On Mon, Apr 21, 2003 at 11:01:21AM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote:
> > Oh, the split has huge meaning inside the kernel. We split the number
> > every time we open the device, and use that split to look up the result.
>
> Not anymore for blockdevices. And now that Al's back not anymore soon
> for charater devices, too :)

Oh, we certainly _do_ split - simply because there are ranges that
belong to same driver (or driver and object).

However, the split boundary is not uniform - it depends on
driver/object/whatnot. IMO it's a moot point by now, anyway - most
of the kernel couldn't care less about device numbers.