Linux-kernel mailing list archive 2000-15,: Re: devfs - why not ?

# Re: devfs - why not ?

Richard Gooch (rgooch@ras.ucalgary.ca)
Thu, 13 Apr 2000 11:53:35 -0600

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Alan Cox writes:
> > Bullshit! Let us take as an example, removable media -- a floppy drive. At
> > some point, one will need the ability to format the floppy in that drive.
> > It _has_ _no_ _filesystem_, thus UUID is a worthless pile of doggy do.
>
> UUID solves all the interesting cases. Lets take your system. I put the floppy
> in a different drive. Oh dear game over you lose.
>
> > Let us further take as an example, a file system that has no UUID...
>
> There arent any obvious ones that dont have serial numbers
>
> > realm since the beginning of time... /dev/sda is what device? Some form
> > of direct mapping is a Very Good Thing (patent pending). If I have to
> > hop on the Concord with a crate of crap, then so be it...
>
> If you want to know what device sda is then ask it, its got
> ioctls. You can even build a link farm at boot. However for most
> actual file system work you want uuids. Especially once you get into
> things like fibrechannel disk arrays

Actually, you want labels too: they're more friendly. And you shall
have them both. /dev/volumes is coming.

However, location-based names still have their place, because it makes
it easy to set up new drives (i.e. when partitioning and when making
filesystems). Also, it provides a clean and easy-to-use interface for
finding out just what hardware is plugged in.

Regards,

Richard....
Permanent: rgooch@atnf.csiro.au
Current: rgooch@ras.ucalgary.ca

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