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Date: Wed, 09 Jun 2004 14:02:45 -0600
From: Scott Long <scottl@freebsd.org>
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To: Peter Jeremy <PeterJeremy@optushome.com.au>
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cc: arch@freebsd.org
cc: Poul-Henning Kamp <phk@phk.freebsd.dk>
Subject: Re: dev_t / udev_t confusion ?
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Peter Jeremy wrote:

> On Wed, 2004-Jun-09 13:16:30 +0200, Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> 
>>The benefit is that we get the dev_t/udev_t confusion solved, the
>>disadvantage (apart from the churn) is that we reduce the already
>>limited direct source compatibility with other BSDs a bit further.
> 
> 
> Getting rid of the confusing situation where the same type name
> means totally different things in userland and kernel is a big win.
> We can always try to convince the other BSDs to follow suit.

The other BSDs use dev_t in both kernel and userland to mean the same
thing, which is equivalent to how we use udev_t.  Fixing this has a lot
of benefits and I'm totally in favor of it.  I share Warner's concern
about 4.x/5.x compatibility, but I gave up on that in my drivers long
ago since the API have changed to much.

Scott