From owner-freebsd-current Wed Mar 20 16:10:15 1996 Return-Path: owner-current Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id QAA15818 for current-outgoing; Wed, 20 Mar 1996 16:10:15 -0800 (PST) Received: from Root.COM (implode.Root.COM [198.145.90.17]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id QAA15813 for ; Wed, 20 Mar 1996 16:10:13 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by Root.COM (8.6.12/8.6.5) with SMTP id QAA03902; Wed, 20 Mar 1996 16:10:05 -0800 Message-Id: <199603210010.QAA03902@Root.COM> X-Authentication-Warning: implode.Root.COM: Host localhost didn't use HELO protocol To: Terry Lambert cc: julian@ref.tfs.com (JULIAN Elischer), scrappy@ki.net, current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: DEVFS vs "regular /dev" In-reply-to: Your message of "Wed, 20 Mar 1996 15:33:17 MST." <199603202233.PAA27947@phaeton.artisoft.com> From: David Greenman Reply-To: davidg@Root.COM Date: Wed, 20 Mar 1996 16:10:05 -0800 Sender: owner-current@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >> > This assumes that the file system abstractions currently in place >> > change as well, since the /dev FS can't be mounted *after* the / FS >> > has been mounted as an inferior FS -- >> why not? >> you don't need a mounted /dev to mount root. >> that's done specially. > >So you don't need a mounted root to have a mounted /dev, of course! That's silly. The root filesystem is mounted long before /dev would be, and as Julian points out, /dev is not required for this (in the same way that /dev is not required when it is disk resident - you'd have a chicken and egg problem as /dev *is* on the root filesystem). >This makes it possible to remount root r/w without unmounting the >devfs (and so still needing /dev). Remounting r/w is not precluded by having /dev mounted (or any other filesystem). Remonting r/w involves changing mount flags, nothing more. -DG David Greenman Core-team/Principal Architect, The FreeBSD Project