Re: Larger dev_t and major/minor split

[Greg KH]

On Thu, Mar 20, 2003 at 01:42:41PM -0800, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> 
> a) We use a 32+32 bit split for dev_t.  Major zero, minor < 65536
>    would be reserved for compatibility with the old 16-bit dev_t; it
>    still leaves the zero value the "no device" entry.  We could still
>    use major 0, minor >= 65536 as anonymous devices, or we could
>    switch using major 255 which has been reserved for expansion for
>    the past eight years.

Well, it seems that this is the most reasonable split, able to handle
everyone for a long time.  I can live with it, if only to keep people
from Oracle quiet :)

thanks,

greg k-h