Re: DEVFSv50 and /dev/fb? (or /dev/fb/? ???)

Richard Gooch (Richard.Gooch@atnf.CSIRO.AU)
Mon, 10 Aug 1998 09:01:10 +1000


Shawn Leas writes:
> On Sun, 9 Aug 1998, Richard Gooch wrote:
>
> > H. Peter Anvin writes:
>
> > BTW: one way I can see devfsd being used is that devfs is mounted onto
> > /devfs or some such, and devfsd fills a disc-based /dev with symlinks
> > to /devfs, or creates real device nodes. This would satisfy people who
> > don't like the default policy of devfs (permissions and naming
> > scheme). In this way devfs becomes an information provider, one that
> > is unified for all devices.
> > Not that I expect to use it this way myself, but the possibility is
> > open.
>
> Maybe a /proc/devfs??? And a devfs mount option to make devfs and devfsd
> work together to do something like this?

I'm not sure exactly what you mean. If you mean: have a kernel config
option to mount devfs onto /proc/devfs, I don't that that is a good
idea. The reason being that you would also need to mount /proc in the
kernel. Better to leave these things to your boot scripts.
The reason there is a config option to mount devfs onto /dev is that
there is some kernel code which opens files in /dev before the init
process runs the init programme.
However, if you're only using devfs as an information provider to
devfsd, then your /dev will have real device nodes anyway.

If instead you mean have your boot scripts mount devfs onto
/proc/devfs, that would require an extra entry in /proc for the mount
point, which could be a config option. Once you have the mount point,
you can mount things in your boot scripts and tell devfsd where the
mount point it.

BTW: hopefully later today I'll have a new patch with the kernel-side
protocol implemented, and a samply devfsd :-)

Regards,

Richard....

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