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Date: Mon, 13 Jan 1997 01:44:33 +1100
From: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Message-Id: <199701121444.BAA14336@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
To: davidn@unique.usn.blaze.net.au, joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de
Subject: Re: DEVFS permissions &c.
Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
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>> Although i should add that this is currently _not_ the case!  I.e.,
>> nobody wrote that ``permissions & persistancy'' module for rc(8) yet.
>> 
>> I've exchanged a couple of thoughts with Bruce about it.  Maybe we
>> could teach mtree(8) to help in this step.
>
>Yes, that would certainly be the way to do it.

Not really.  Things it doesn't do right include:
- wildcards.  The equivalent of `chmod 666 /dev/tty[pqrs][PQRS]*' is a
  huge list.
- futures.  When a new disk with lots of slices and partitions on it
  is detected, how is its mode and group changed so that a member of
  group operator can access it?

>Seriously, I've used sysv for many years, and grew to quickly despise
>the sysv approach. It does have some good sides, but, for example,
>Sun's tree of symlinks to init/shutdown scripts is definitely an
>overkill.

I expect a tree of devices would be overkill too.  You would need evil
symlinks to reduce /dev/disks/raw/scsi/bus0/id0/lun0/slice2/partitionh
to something like /dev/rsd0h :-).

Bruce