Re: [PATCH 01/19] dax: remove block device dependencies

[Vivek Goyal]

On Thu, Jan 16, 2020 at 10:09:46AM -0800, Dan Williams wrote:
> On Wed, Jan 15, 2020 at 1:08 PM Jeff Moyer <jmoyer@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > Hi, Dan,
> >
> > Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@xxxxxxxxx> writes:
> >
> > > I'm going to take a look at how hard it would be to develop a kpartx
> > > fallback in udev. If that can live across the driver transition then
> > > maybe this can be a non-event for end users that already have that
> > > udev update deployed.
> >
> > I just wanted to remind you that label-less dimms still exist, and are
> > still being shipped.  For those devices, the only way to subdivide the
> > storage is via partitioning.
> 
> True, but if kpartx + udev can make this transparent then I don't
> think users lose any functionality. They just gain a device-mapper
> dependency.

So udev rules will trigger when a /dev/pmemX device shows up and run
kpartx which in turn will create dm-linear devices and device nodes
will show up in /dev/mapper/pmemXpY.

IOW, /dev/pmemXpY device nodes will be gone. So if any of the scripts or
systemd unit files are depenent on /dev/pmemXpY, these will still be
broken out of the box and will have to be modified to use device nodes
in /dev/mapper/ directory instead. Do I understand it right, Or I missed
the idea completely.

Vivek