Re: devfs - why not ?

[Richard Gooch]

Aaron Sethman writes:
> It seems to me that the largest issue that most people have with devfs is
> namespace.  Perhaps something that should be considered is a .h file that
> keeps customized namespace stored in it.  At least this way namespace
> decisions won't be scattered through the kernel and not stuck in devfsd if
> the user doesn't want to do that.  Then at least you can do neat things
> like CONFIG_DEVFS_OLD_STYLE_LAYOUT or CONFIG_DEVFS_NEW_STYLE_LAYOUT or for
> the truly sick at heart CONFIG_DEVFS_I_LOVE_SOLARIS_AND_ITS_DEVICES_TREE.
> 
> Just an idea...If nobody wants to work on something like this, I might
> have the time for it...

Trust me, you don't want to go there. Unless you only allow very minor
changes (like substituting one string for another), this is a lot of
work. I've been there. The Great Name Change took me over a month to
do most of the (devfs-aware) drivers. It was about 2 months before the
dust started settling.

And if you insert code for multiple layouts, you will be adding a lot
of extra code to the kernel. "The whole is greater than the sum of the
parts", except in this case that's bad.

Do it in user-space. That's what devfsd can do for you.

				Regards,

					Richard....
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