Re: [PLUG] weird devfs issues

[Will Dyson <will_dyson@pobox.com>]

On Thu, 2003-07-10 at 07:13, Paul wrote:
> If I remember correctly and it is true, how important is this?  From 
> what I've read DevFS will be replaced in future kernels.

There is talk (and proof-of-concept code) of implementing the devfs(d)
functionality in userspace, using sysfs and hotplug. It works like this:

When hardware is discovered (either at boot time or when it is pluged
in), information about the device is made available in the /sysfs
filesystem tree (such as what bus it is located on, etc) and a hotplug
event is generated for it.

When the hotplug script gets a message for a peice of hardware, it can
load a driver for it and make symlinks in /dev.

But I don't see how it would be possible to do things like loading
modules when someone tries to open their device (as devfsd can do).

There has also been work on trimming down the devfs(d) code into
something that is smaller, race-free and generally sucks less.


But 2.6 will not be out for several months (at least). And, while I
encourage everybody to test out new kernels to find bugs, it doesn't
make the immedate problem go away.

-- 
Will Dyson
"Back off man, I'm a scientist!" -Dr. Peter Venkman

_________________________________________________________________________
Philadelphia Linux Users Group        --       http://www.phillylinux.org
Announcements - http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce
General Discussion  --   http://lists.netisland.net/mailman/listinfo/plug