From owner-freebsd-doc Mon Dec 4 12:41:20 2000 From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 4 12:41:16 2000 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org Received: from cfcl.com (unknown [24.221.169.54]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6E9D437B400 for ; Mon, 4 Dec 2000 12:41:16 -0800 (PST) Received: from [192.168.168.205] (cerberus [192.168.168.205]) by cfcl.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id MAA00530 for ; Mon, 4 Dec 2000 12:40:42 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from rdm@cfcl.com) Mime-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 12:41:10 -0800 To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG From: Rich Morin Subject: documenting /dev/* Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" Sender: owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org In documenting /dev/*, I came to some conclusions about it. Here they are, along with a proposed remedy. -r devs_proposal, 2000.12 ====================== /dev is a mess. It may work OK for programs, but it is a disaster for humans. So, here is a modest proposal for a rework (DUCKING). Because /dev is "wired in" to any number of programs, it must live on. A "structured dev" directory (/sdev) can, however, be created and used as a friendly alternative. /sdev will contain the same device names as /dev does, but they will be organized by a set of subdirectories, as: /sdev/ structured dev bus/ bus adapters scsi/ SCSI bus adapters adw/ Advansys 16-bit SCSI Host adapters ... disk/ disks cdrom/ CD-ROM disks acd/ ATAPI CD-ROM disks ... floppy/ floppy disks afd/ ATAPI floppy disks ... hard/ hard disks ad/ ATA hard disks ... raid/ RAID arrays amrd/ AMI MegaRAID ... misc/ miscellany audio/ audio video/ video ... net/ network interfaces ether/ Ethernet interfaces cs/ Crystel Semiconductor-based ... radio/ radio-based network interfaces ... tape/ tapes sa/ (SCSI) Sequential Access devices ... The implementation of /sdev is simple in principle, but complicated in practice. Each device node in /sdev is simply a hard link to a node in /dev. The difficulty lies in knowing where the links should go. I have a reasonable starting point on an index of /dev nodes, but more work will be needed before it can drive a creation script. -- -- Rich Morin: rdm@cfcl.com, +1 650-873-7841, http://www.cfcl.com/rdm Prime Time Freeware: info@ptf.com, +1 408-433-9662, http://www.ptf.com MacPerl: http://www.macperl.com, http://www.ptf.com/ptf/products/MPPE MkLinux: http://www.mklinux.org, http://www.ptf.com/ptf/products/MKLP To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-doc" in the body of the message