Re: Migrating to larger numbers

Alan Cox (alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk)
Tue, 8 Jun 1999 11:10:33 +0100 (BST)


> On a side note, what happens if say 32bits were implemented (as it's
> currently IIRC 16 bit. 8bit major 8bit minor) as 12bit:20bit and you have
> an older nfs client (say about .2 or .4 kernel versions prior. I'm talking

You would hand back the old device if it was an old device id and that is
what is on disk (and for most cases it is what should be on disk so you can
use older kernels too).

NFSv2 doesn't interpret major/minor pairs. NFSv3 allows you to ask about
the split. So NFSv2 will preserve the 32bit value given, NFSv3 will shift
it about.

> What would happen, would the nfs server realize it has an old client and
> mask the major/minor?

That is another way of handling back compatibility for old 2.0/2.2 boxes.

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