Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Fri, 1 Feb 2002 13:02:17 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Fri, 1 Feb 2002 13:02:08 -0500 Received: from cpe-24-221-186-48.ca.sprintbbd.net ([24.221.186.48]:30216 "HELO jose.vato.org") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id ; Fri, 1 Feb 2002 13:01:52 -0500 From: "Tim Pepper" Date: Fri, 1 Feb 2002 10:01:45 -0800 To: Guillaume Boissiere Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: New device naming convention Message-ID: <20020201100145.A21307@vato.org> In-Reply-To: <3C59F1C3.21004.28F8E65B@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5.1i In-Reply-To: <3C59F1C3.21004.28F8E65B@localhost>; from boissiere@mediaone.net on Fri, Feb 01, 2002 at 01:39:15AM -0500 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Fri 01 Feb at 01:39:15 -0500 boissiere@mediaone.net done said: > I added this item on my kernel 2.5 status list a few weeks ago, and > it seems to be _the_ hot topic for 2.5. > > o Pending Finalize new device naming convention (Linus Torvalds) > > What exactly are people expecting Linus to decide on? And once it > has been decided, what is the next step after that? I tried to explain when I asked that it be added to the list...here's another go: I think there are various (especially hotpluggable?) subsystems where people have issues, but here's one example... Say I'm a big file or db server in a fibre channel environment and have 1000 disk luns on various disk subsystems and there happen to be 8 paths to those luns because of how the fabric is set up. What do those 8000 'sd' devices get named. And will there be persistence of whatever the name is? If I'm booting off 'sdfoo' will the device (host:bus:target:lun) behind that name be the same between scsi driver loads. Right now the user just has to know and control what's going on magically and make sure the right thing happens. This might work on a couple devices in your pc for which you can easily look and see what all the luns are and deduce how the sd's get populated, figure out which one is the disk you want. But it doesn't scale. Persistence may be best solved in userspace, but right now the kernel assures that there isn't any. There've been huge discussions in the past about how to handle /dev; they're in the archive. Is it a problem that needs an answer? Is devfs the answer? Will an answer be in 2.5? t. -- ********************************************************* * tpepper@vato dot org * Venimus, Vidimus, * * http://www.vato.org/~tpepper * Dolavimus * ********************************************************* - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/