From: Michael Buesch <mbuesch@freenet.de>
To: Steve Youngs <sryoungs@bigpond.net.au>
Subject: Re: udev - please help me to understand
Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2004 14:00:19 +0100
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Cc: Linux Kernel List <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>, Greg KH <greg@kroah.com>,
       linux-hotplug-devel@lists.sourceforge.net
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On Friday 02 January 2004 12:48, Steve Youngs wrote:
> I have zero hot-pluggable devices (that might change somewhere in the
> distant future, but for now I don't have any).  And never in my wildest
> dreams could I ever imagine running out of device numbers.

Yea, _you_ can't imagine this. :) But Kernel developers can... .

> Reading through the documentation that I've found about udev, your
> main points seem to be about:
>
>         - udev vs devfs
>         - running out of device major/minor numbers
>         - not having to worry about major/minor numbers
>
> For me, the first point is moot because I don't use devfs.  The second
> point is just plain ridiculous, there is just _no_ way that it could
> happen (remember that I'm talking about my own situation).

I don't think so.
Every new device needs a unique number, that _no other_ device uses.
As more and more devices are developed, we are running out of device
numbers. (well, that may take a while with 32-bit device numbers,
but it may appear so).

> So, Greg, is there _any_ reason why I'd want to be using udev?

(Hm, I'm not Greg, but...)
Because it's cool. :)
No, you're right.
I am not going to use udev or devfs on my server
for example. The reason is quite simple. This server will be running
linux-2.4 until it dies and I will never add some more device to it.
So there is no point of using udev or devfs on it. I know the hardware,
create all nodes for it and it runs (without all the problems devfs
and udev still provide).
But on my main Computer I am going to use udev, because I love it's
flexibility.

_You_ have to decide if you need udev or don't. Nobody else can decide
it for you.

- -- 
Regards Michael Buesch  [ http://www.tuxsoft.de.vu ]

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