Re: Ideas for v2.1

DUPRE Christophe (duprec@jsp.umontreal.ca)
Wed, 12 Jun 1996 11:52:04 -0400 (EDT)


On Tue, 11 Jun 1996, Russell Steffen wrote:

> Here's my wishlist for 2.1:
>
> 1) Reworking the disk subsystem, so that there is a single top-level
> driver for all disks, with the lower level drivers (IDE and SCSI)
> registering each valid disk (maybe each parition) with the top
> level driver. With this scheme, we can go with a single major
> device number for the disk subsystem with each partition with
> it's own minor number. This means we can get rid of the /dev/hd*
> and /dev/sd*, and replace them with a single set of devices (/dev/disk*?).
>
> Another "feature" I can forsee this providing is something like a
> /proc/disktab, which could list all of the disks in the system and
> track stats on a by-disk or by-parition basis.

Not really a good idea : Let's say you have IDE and SCSI disks:
/dev/hda, /dev/hdb, /dev/sda and /dev/sdb

With your system, you'd have:
/dev/hda -> /dev/diska
/dev/hdb -> /dev/diskb
/dev/sda -> /dev/diskc
/dev/sdb -> /dev/diskd

Now one IDE disk is crashed and you remove it. Thus /dev/hdb no longer
exists, and you get this mapping:
/dev/hda -> /dev/diska
/dev/sda -> /dev/diskb
/dev/sdc -> /dev/diskc

So now your /etc/fstab will mount the wrong partitions...

> 2) As above, but for CD-ROMS. We can get rid of all of the /dev/ entries
> for all of those odd-ball CDROMs, and replace it with a single /dev/cdrom*
> series. I think distribution creators who do CD installs would really
> love it if /dev/cdrom0 (real device, no symlink) were always a real
> CDROM if one was present. That way, they don't have to mount every
> device under the sun (or under /dev, anyway :) looking for a vaild
> file system.

Same problem with this scheme...

> Also, I'd like to see the tray locking on CDROMS be a little less
> strict. If there are no open files on a mounted CD, and no process
> has the CD for a current directory, I'd like to be able to open
> the CD tray (without a screwdriver :), put in a new disk, and
> have it be available when I close the tray.

Even if the CD is mounted ?

Christophe Dupre Universite de Montreal
Internet: duprec@jsp.umontreal.ca Qc, Canada
Montreal, Qc, Canada
"Nous ne sommes pas libres de ne pas etre libres, nous sommes obliges de
l'etre" - Fernando Savater

-- Geek Code 2.1 --
GCS d-- H+ s:++ g+ !p au-* a19 w+ v+ C++(+++) UIL++>+++ P+>++ L++
3- E---- N++ K W- M- V-- Y+ t++ 5++ !j R+ G- tv b++
D+ e+ u** h->++ f+ r++ n---(----) y+

#include <disclaimer.h>