On Thu, Feb 11, 1999 at 07:52:51PM -0500, Monty wrote:
> >Jargon query: what's "CAM" stand for?
>
> Common Access Method.
= CHS into linear sector number translation (scsi/scsicam.h) ??
> >Device entries only show up when the module is loaded. On a system
> >which has kmod running, attempts to lookup an inode which doesn't
> >exist will result in a module load attempt.
>
> The problem is of the chicken-and-the-egg variety; how do you open a
> file if it doesn't exist?
>
> >Note that directory
> >scanning doesn't count as an inode lookup (other than the directory
> >itself). Module autoloading is not restricted to root, and seems to
> >work quite nicely (it seems quick enough).
>
> Loading the module is fine... the problem is that I can't open the
> device file if it isn't there; the module won't load until I open the
> file....
No problem. The file does not show up in the driectory. You can still try to
open it, if you know it's name. The kernel can autoload the appropriate
module.
This differs from normal autoloading a little bit. There you have the device
files and the kernel perform a loading request for block-major-XY ...
> >> Second: What is the chance of this becoming mainline? I tend not to
> >> code to interfaces that only a few users have patched in.
> >
> >Pretty good, I think. Last I heard, Linus was considering including it
> >sometime in 2.2.x. He first wants to get 2.2.x stable before including
> >it. What driver are you writing/maintaining?
>
> Auigh! More brand new stuff in 2.2??
>
> I write cdparanoia and the (yet unreleased) Paranoia IV device library.
> See http://www.mit.edu/afs/sipb/user/xiphmont/cdparanoia
>
> >BTW: devfs is entirely optional: it doesn't break the API. The
> >intention is that it is drop-in compatible. A large number of drivers
> >now have devfs support (this is included in the patch).
>
> A stable release kernel is not the time to introduce something major
> like this...
>
> Am I insane? Am I the only one who believes that 'stable' means
> 'don't randomly fuck with it'?
Richards devfs is not randomly fucking with anything. It's an approach which
has been discussed on linux-kernel in every detail and implemented and
maintained by RG, since then.
devfs has been out for a very loing time now and a lot of people use it
without problems. As it's fully backward compatible, using it does not hurt
anybody.
I don't know the exact reasons, why Linus didn't schedule it's inclusion for
2.1.130 but for 2.2.x, but I think, he does not want to care about problems,
which might be caused by devfs interactions, so he wants the mainline rock
solid before.
Note that also the ISDN driver updates are yet to happen, too, within 2.2.x
--
Kurt Garloff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> [Dortmund, FRG]
Plasma physics, high perf. computing [Linux-ix86,-axp, DUX]
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