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Date:      Thu, 13 Jan 2005 16:51:14 -0800 (PST)
From:      Doug White <dwhite@gumbysoft.com>
To:        Jose M Rodriguez <josemi@freebsd.jazztel.es>
Cc:        stable@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: problems with devfs amd /dev/fd/
Message-ID:  <20050113164715.G13904@carver.gumbysoft.com>
In-Reply-To: <41DA75E2.30302@redesjm.local>
References:  <41DA75E2.30302@redesjm.local>

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On Tue, 4 Jan 2005, Jose M Rodriguez wrote:

> Hi,
>
> trying to import foomatic-rip, I found great changes under /dev/fd/
> going from RELENG_4 to RELENG_5.
>
> Seems that /dev/fd/3 is used by several pipe construct like foomatic-rip
> to get a free backwards error channel.
>
> Digging a bit, I found that now, I need mount fdescfs to get this.  I
> think this is not well documented in release notes.

Nothing in the FreeBSD base system depends on /dev/fd. foomatic-rip a
third-party program. It would be appropriate for the port to print a
message reminding the user to mount fdescfs if they plan to use this
application, but not appropriate to enable it by default just for this one
port.

> Also, seems that support /dev/fd/3 in devfs may be a good idea.  Add a
> sysctl to control how many /dev/fd/n devfs create will be even better.

fdesc is populated automatically based on the calling program. If the
program has file descriptor 3 open then /dev/fd/3 will be available.
Likewise, if it is closed, /dev/fd/3 will not exist.

-- 
Doug White                    |  FreeBSD: The Power to Serve
dwhite@gumbysoft.com          |  www.FreeBSD.org



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