From owner-freebsd-current Thu Jul 4 19:10:32 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 910FE37B400; Thu, 4 Jul 2002 19:10:26 -0700 (PDT) Received: from cain.gsoft.com.au (genesi.lnk.telstra.net [139.130.136.161]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DD69043E31; Thu, 4 Jul 2002 19:10:23 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from doconnor@gsoft.com.au) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by cain.gsoft.com.au (8.12.4/8.12.3) with ESMTP id g652A9ZL012624; Fri, 5 Jul 2002 11:40:10 +0930 (CST) (envelope-from doconnor@gsoft.com.au) Subject: Re: About DEVFS (was: Re: About GEOM...) From: "Daniel O'Connor" To: Terry Lambert Cc: Bruce Evans , "Greg 'groggy' Lehey" , Poul-Henning Kamp , Mario Goebbels , current@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <3D24BB6E.3829314A@mindspring.com> References: <20020704210304.Y21619-100000@gamplex.bde.org> <3D24BB6E.3829314A@mindspring.com> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.0.7 Date: 05 Jul 2002 11:40:09 +0930 Message-Id: <1025835014.4223.5.camel@chowder.gsoft.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.6 (www dot roaringpenguin dot com slash mimedefang) Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Fri, 2002-07-05 at 06:47, Terry Lambert wrote: > o Inability to create non-existant ("convenience") nodes and > symbolic links, thus providing device aliases matching those > rendesvous expected by existing third party programs, in > particular, with regard to ABI compatability > o Inability to persistently modify default permissions values > away from the system defined acceptable safe values persistantly > across a reboot, without modifying instance declaration in > source code. > o "One size fits all" per major number for template permissions > definitions I am pretty sure you can put chmod/ln -s commands in /etc/rc.local (I rc.devfs? My -current box is asleep ATM) which largely solves this problem. It isn't perfect but the current DEVFS has good advantages - especially the hardware/node synchronisation which is very useful when you have to shuffle hard drives and have neglected to make the right device nodes first. > Personally, I've never been persuaded that the persistance of modifications > argument against devfs had any validity; I have yet to see one case that > can not be managed via rc.local or modification of driver defaults > (e.g. I know of no transient device that results in the creation of > multiple device nodes for the same major number). I personally think > the correct way to handle this is to write the changes back to the > kernel image, if we are talking about modifications to the primary > instances of the devices. Loader? ie on shutdown write a list of permissions etc into a file which the loader can slurp up next boot and shove into the kernel and be parsed. > But overall, it seems to be a move forward. I guess if you valued > persistance (e.g. the ability to rename your floppy device to be > /dev/mickeymouse) over the new features, I guess I could see your > point. Mmmm.. unnecessary pain. -- Daniel O'Connor software and network engineer for Genesis Software - http://www.gsoft.com.au "The nice thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from." -- Andrew Tanenbaum GPG Fingerprint - 9A8C 569F 685A D928 5140 AE4B 319B 41F4 5D17 FDD5 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message