From owner-freebsd-current Thu Mar 21 05:34:20 1996 Return-Path: owner-current Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id FAA26210 for current-outgoing; Thu, 21 Mar 1996 05:34:20 -0800 (PST) Received: from tfs.com (tfs.com [140.145.250.1]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id FAA26205 for ; Thu, 21 Mar 1996 05:34:19 -0800 (PST) Received: from critter.tfs.com by tfs.com (smail3.1.28.1) with SMTP id m0tzkVN-0003wIC; Thu, 21 Mar 96 05:34 PST Received: from localhost.tfs.com (localhost.tfs.com [127.0.0.1]) by critter.tfs.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id NAA00680; Thu, 21 Mar 1996 13:34:15 GMT X-Authentication-Warning: critter.tfs.com: Host localhost.tfs.com didn't use HELO protocol To: davidg@Root.COM cc: Terry Lambert , julian@ref.tfs.com (JULIAN Elischer), scrappy@ki.net, current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: DEVFS vs "regular /dev" In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 21 Mar 1996 05:31:11 PST." <199603211331.FAA05288@Root.COM> Date: Thu, 21 Mar 1996 05:34:14 -0800 Message-ID: <678.827415254@critter.tfs.com> From: Poul-Henning Kamp Sender: owner-current@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > >> >> >So you don't need a mounted root to have a mounted /dev, of course! > >> >> > >> >> That's silly. The root filesystem is mounted long before /dev would be, > > > >> > > >> >Not that long before. /sbin/init will have to mount it to get in touch > >> >with /dev/console, /dev/null and ... > > I just re-read what you said...I think you might have read what I wrote > backwards - the root filesystem is mounted automagically in the kernel very > early in system startup. /dev, whether it's done in the kernel or in > /sbin/init, would be done quite a bit later in relative terms. well, yes, "later" in relative terms, but not many actual seconds though :-) > If we do the mount in /sbin/init and it fails for some reason (like the > mount point doesn't exist), then we'll have no way to inform the operator > (there isn't a /dev/console to write to). If we do it in the kernel, we can > emit a message saying "/dev: not found" or something. I think sbin/init should be started with stdin+stdout pointing to console for this and other reasons as well. -- Poul-Henning Kamp | phk@FreeBSD.ORG FreeBSD Core-team. http://www.freebsd.org/~phk | phk@login.dknet.dk Private mailbox. whois: [PHK] | phk@ref.tfs.com TRW Financial Systems, Inc. Future will arrive by its own means, progress not so.