On Thu, 14 Jun 2001, Derek Martin wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 13, 2001 at 11:09:23PM -0400, Tom Rauschenbach wrote:
>
> > Maybe I phrased the question poorly. I know I can't nfs mount a
> > remote /dev but if I created a /nfs/exportstuff directory and made
> > symlinks to the devices I wanted to share, and then machine B nfs
> > mounted /nfs/exportstuff on /dev/remdevs could machine B play a wav
> > on /dev/remdevs/audio ?
> >
> > I could and probably will do the experiment, unless someone can tell
> > me easily that I can't get there from here.
>
> Well, being not a kernel hacker, AND being too lazy to do the
> experiment myself (given that it's way too late and most of my
> hardware is disassembled on my living room floor) this is more of an
> educated guess than anything...
>
> I'd say not. A device file, even though it is treated much like a
> regular file in many respects, is very different. It's sort of like a
> symbolic link to a kernel driver. The file directory entries include
> a major and minor number, which are sort of like a driver number and
> device number. When they're opened, and I/O is performed on them, it
> doesn't actually go into a file. Instead, the kernel uses the major
> and minor number to determine which driver to use, and it sends the
> data directly to the hardware.
>
> My best guess is that if you NFS mounted a device file, say, /dev/dsp,
> that if you wrote to that NFS-mounted device file, the sound would
> play on the local machine, just as if you'd sent it to the local
> filesystem's /dev/dsp. It would do that because the major and minor
> number of the device file is the same as the local one, and that (as I
> understand it) is really all that the kernel cares about.
This makes sense. Too much sense. I've gotta tryit now...
>
> Hopefully if I'm wrong, someone who better understands how this works
> will speak up...
>
>
> --
> ---------------------------------------------------
> Derek Martin | Unix/Linux geek
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] | GnuPG Key ID: 0x81CFE75D
> Retrieve my public key at http://pgp.mit.edu
--
---
Tom Rauschenbach [EMAIL PROTECTED]
All your base are belong to us
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