Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 14:46:13 +0200 From: Werner Almesberger <almesber@lrc.di.epfl.ch> To: Francois-Rene Rideau <fare@tunes.org> Cc: Linux Kernel <linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu>, FreeBSD Hackers <freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org>, NetBSD Kernel <tech-kern@netbsd.org>, OpenBSD Kernel <openbsd-tech@openbsd.org> Subject: Re: Improving the Unix API Message-ID: <19990627144613.B4004@lrc.di.epfl.ch> In-Reply-To: <19990627114526.A10755@ZhengHe.augustin.thierry>; from Francois-Rene Rideau on Sun, Jun 27, 1999 at 11:45:26AM %2B0200 References: <19990627114526.A10755@ZhengHe.augustin.thierry>
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Francois-Rene Rideau wrote:
> Robert told me that in some Unix flavors of old,
> it was possible to open a file by path with a null access mode (O_NULL ?)
E.g. Linux. Very undocumented, but has been around for ages ('92 or
such). The main purpose is to keep the floppy drive from spinning up
to check for a media change when you open it to access parameters and
such. E.g. fdformat, setfdprm, and LILO use this. (NB: some versions
of strace print the flags argument in this case as "0x4", although
it's really 3.)
- Werner
--
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/ Werner Almesberger, ICA, EPFL, CH werner.almesberger@ica.epfl.ch /
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