Date: Wed, 20 Mar 1996 17:14:31 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org> To: davidg@Root.COM Cc: terry@lambert.org, julian@ref.tfs.com, scrappy@ki.net, current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: DEVFS vs "regular /dev" Message-ID: <199603210014.RAA28244@phaeton.artisoft.com> In-Reply-To: <199603210010.QAA03902@Root.COM> from "David Greenman" at Mar 20, 96 04:10:05 pm
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> >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).
Well, the alternative is a (possible) mis-recognition of root ("Can't
mount root"), which I think it would fix as well (making the mount
independent of its location in the hierarchy would also fix that one).
> >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.
Well, then it isn't a real issue for that; never mind. I was going
down my old "objections to devfs" list and the workarounds for each
one of them.
The real reason I want it, is, as I've said before, nomadic computing.
If a resource is available, it doesn't matter which one it is if
you can make them identical. I'd still like to address resources
by resource name instead of machine name.
I'll give my standard example: a portable computer with a 2Mb/S IR
interface that wants to access locally available identical resources
from the office server in two offices.
For instance, floating licenses for products.
Terry Lambert
terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.
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