Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1999 08:19:10 +0200 (SAT) From: Peter van Heusden <pvh@leftside.wcape.school.za> To: freebsd-arch@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: DEVFS, the time has come... Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.02A.9901040800040.880-100000@leftside.wcape.school.za> In-Reply-To: <19990103222848.53389@uriah.heep.sax.de>
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As I understand it, the core philosophical points behind the current arguments are: 1) /dev is a 'view' on a particular set of data. DEVFS currently transforms the kernel database of device information into files in /dev. 2) Simply knowing which devices exist is not enough. It is necessary to store information with regards to admin policy decisions such as security policies (permissions), well-known names (symbolic links), and so forth. Given this basis, the debate clearly seems to be about how to store the information mentioned in point 2. Various schemes have been suggested - I'd just like to put in my 2c by arguing against the idea of storing this data in a shell script, on the basis that what should be important here is the storage of the policy, not the actions which would implement the policy. My experience with writing a WWW interface to FreeBSD made me realise that shells scripts for configuration (e.g. /etc/rc.conf) are a big minefield. Anything that wants to alter /etc/rc.conf has to potentially be able to understand the language of sh. I would strongly argue that however persistent policy storage is implemented (by a daemon of some description, by the fs mount command, etc), the information should be stored in an ascii file with some well known, but simple, format. That would allow both users and programs to easy interact with, and alter, the data. Peter -- Peter van Heusden | Its the 90's, and collective action is STILL cool! pvh@leftside.wcape.school.za | Get active in your union today! To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-arch" in the body of the message
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