From owner-freebsd-current Fri Mar 22 17:21:32 1996 Return-Path: owner-current Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id RAA18563 for current-outgoing; Fri, 22 Mar 1996 17:21:32 -0800 (PST) Received: from godzilla.zeta.org.au (godzilla.zeta.org.au [203.2.228.19]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id RAA18558 for ; Fri, 22 Mar 1996 17:21:29 -0800 (PST) Received: (from bde@localhost) by godzilla.zeta.org.au (8.6.12/8.6.9) id MAA00596; Sat, 23 Mar 1996 12:17:03 +1100 Date: Sat, 23 Mar 1996 12:17:03 +1100 From: Bruce Evans Message-Id: <199603230117.MAA00596@godzilla.zeta.org.au> To: scott@statsci.com, terry@lambert.org Subject: Re: PATCH: small, syntax changes for devfs Cc: bde@zeta.org.au, current@freebsd.org, julian@ref.tfs.com, phk@critter.tfs.com, scrappy@ki.net Sender: owner-current@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >> > wd0s1 is there, and opening it would reveal wd0s1[a-h], but this isn't >> > much use. Perhaps wd0s1 should be a directory containing [a-h]. I >> > prefer a flat namespace. >> >> Doesn't wd0s1 need to be a device file so you have something to run >> disklabel against? Sort of. You would normally run disklabel on wd0s1c. wd0s1c and wd0s1 are currently just aliases for each other if a label exists (if there is no label, than at most wd0s1 exists). This is mainly for historical reasons. The directory layout would be: wd0 | /-----------------------------\ wd0s1 wd0s2 wd0s3 ... wd0s30 | ... ... ... /---------------------------------\ wd0s1a wd0s1b wd0s1c=wd0s1(?) ... wd0s1h >This is really irrelevant to flat vs. non-flat name spaces. There is >no reason why a device file can't be a directory and a file at the >same time. Device reads and writes don't care about seek offsets The semantics aren't clear. wd0s1 would be a container for both wd0s1[a-h] and the raw bytes on the device. I like ordinary read() to work on directories. Bruce