*BSD News Article 12705


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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!menudo.uh.edu!uuneo!sugar!peter
From: peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: Some ideas on the driver interface (was: Re: Release of drivers etc.)
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Date: Thu, 11 Mar 1993 01:03:44 GMT
Message-ID: <C3p9M9.72J@sugar.neosoft.com>
References: <C3MCIF.Iv@sugar.neosoft.com> <1nj0ej$j6s@walt.ee.pdx.edu>
Lines: 38

In article <1nj0ej$j6s@walt.ee.pdx.edu> rgrimes@acacia (Rodney W. Grimes) writes:
> peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva) writes:
> : It would probably be best to integrate the master file and the BSD-ish config
> : file somehow... maybe:
> : 
> : controller	wd0 at isa? port "IO_WD1" bio irq 14 vector wdintr
> : disk		wd0 at wd0 drive 0
> : device		wd0 at major 0 minor wd0a 0 wd0b 1 wd0c 2 wd0d 3...
> : disk		wd1 at wd1 drive 1
> : device		wd1 at major 1 minor wd1a 8 wd1b 9 wd1c 10 wd1d 11...
> : 
> : [rest of example deleted]

> You really want to duplicate /dev/MAKEDEV in every kernel config file?  That
> sounds like storing duplicate data.  

No, I want to *replace* /dev/MAKEDEV *and* conf.c with data that's stored
where it's most easily managed.

After all, there's a lot redundant in the kernel config file. It could be
made a lot simpler by (for example) splitting the driver definitions out
from the deriver selection mechanism.

> Are you advocating that config do mknod's in /dev?

No, it can create a new MAKEDEV script.

> That would mean every
> time you config a kernel /dev would get rebuilt.

That's what System V does, for the devices that changed. It sure simplifies
things for naive system admins. I support BSD-style and SysV style systems,
and this is one of the VERY few places System V is way ahead of BSD.
-- 
Peter da Silva.  <peter@sugar.neosoft.com>.
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