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Date:      Mon, 20 Sep 1999 23:11:26 -0700 (PDT)
From:      Julian Elischer <julian@whistle.com>
To:        John-Mark Gurney <gurney_j@resnet.uoregon.edu>
Cc:        Brian Beattie <beattie@aracnet.com>, "Matthew N. Dodd" <winter@jurai.net>, Chuck Robey <chuckr@mat.net>, Wayne Cuddy <wayne@crb-web.com>, FreeBSD Hackers List <freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: what is devfs?
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.05.9909202307040.22714-100000@home.elischer.org>
In-Reply-To: <19990920190533.16613@hydrogen.fircrest.net>

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On Mon, 20 Sep 1999, John-Mark Gurney wrote:

> Julian Elischer scribbled this message on Sep 20:
> > On Mon, 20 Sep 1999, Brian Beattie wrote:
> > > On Mon, 20 Sep 1999, Julian Elischer wrote:
> > > > While I sharply disagree, with your assertion, I also point out that if
> > > > you make such a all-singing-all-dancing devfsd, then you might as well get
> > > > rid of devfs entirely, and just have devfsd make the devices using normal
> > > > mknod commands.
> > 
> > > Since I did not follow the original discussion, maybe this idea has been
> > > discussed and discarded, but what about a "translucent" like deal.
> > > Basically yu would mount the devfs on top of an existing directrory or
> > > filesystem.  The underlying contents would "show through" by some set of
> > > rules.  One rule would be that if a device node existed in the devfs and
> > > the real fs, and the device node in the real fs was for the "fake/null
> > > whatever you want to call it device", the resulting device node would have
> > > the major/minor fron the devfs and the owner/group/permissions from the
> > > real fs underneath.  Any change to the node would affect the real fs
> > > underneath.  I could probably expand on this futher if anybody is
> > > interested.
> > 
> > Basically this is my scheme. Using something like a 'union mount'.
> > I expounded tis as a possibility a few years ago. It is about as close as
> > I can get using a filesystem to do the work. A daemon can do these things
> > easily but has other drawbacks.
> 
> what happens in this case:
> mount /devfs
> cd /devfs
> mv ttyd1 da0c		# sure you don't normally do this but you CAN!

da0c is now the name of the vissible alias of ttyd1

> cd /
> umount /devfs
> mount /devfs

ttyd1 is now the name of the visible alias of the device.

> 
> sorry, that doesn't cut it as you loose your "dynamic" links from the
> umount to mount, and we are back to the major/minor number to keep
> track of which device node belongs to which device...

no the "original" name is tracked.

I don't see your problem

the device reverts to it;s original name as it should....

it remembers any permissions it was given under either name...

I think this is good.
you may think it's bad. why?





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