Re: [PATCH] dev_t [1/3]

[Andrew Morton]

[e-mail] wrote:
>
>     From: Jeff Garzik <[e-mail]>
> 
>     > So, kill cdev_cachep, cdev_cache_init,
>     > cdfind, cdget, cdput, inode->i_cdev, struct char_device.
>     > All of this is dead code today.
> 
>     You're also removing refcount code... why not fix it up instead?
> 
>     I agree your patch is mostly correct from a "today" standpoint,
>     but from a long term standpoint ...
> 
> Your remarks have been made a few times already, and each
> time I answered that my objective was to give Linux 2.6
> a 32-bit dev_t, and my objective is not to do work that
> is not for 2.6 but for 2.8.
> 

What does that whole hash/cache/refcount setup in there actually do, and why
can we afford to remove it for 2.6?