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From: Joe Greco <jgreco@brasil.moneng.mei.com>
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Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/dev/ccd ccd.c src/sys/dev/vn vn.c src/sys/sys conf.h src/sys/i386/isa fd.c mcd.c scd.c wcd.c wd.c wt.c s
To: imp@village.org (Warner Losh)
Date: Fri, 26 Jul 1996 13:30:33 -0500 (CDT)
Cc: jkh@time.cdrom.com, freebsd-current@freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <199607261727.LAA28387@rover.village.org> from "Warner Losh" at Jul 26, 96 11:27:19 am
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> : It would also allow you to make links, like:
> : 
> : 	ln -s /dev/cuaa0 /dev/mouse
> : 
> : Which get recreated automagically when devfs is next mounted.  Yes,
> : you could accomplish the same effect with a handful of commands in
> : /etc/rc.local, but the point is to make it transparent and so obey the
> : principle of least astonishment.
> 
> Hmmm, sounds like what is needed is a file system that maintains a
> file, lets call it /etc/devperms to invent a name.  When you mount
> this file system, it reads that file.  When you hack this file system,
> it hacks that file for you.  When you unmount, nothing would happen to
> that file.  All of this is dependent, of course, on the existance of
> real devices on the system.

I don't have anything useful to suggest other than to note that Sun took the
easy way out of this problem by implementing a "devfs-on-ufs", i.e. they use
UFS and have a procedure for "automatically" creating new instances of
devices.

Their method does preserve permissions, etc., but it does so at the awful
price of a half-baked implementation that I really can't stand.

... JG