On Fri, Apr 28, 2000 at 12:18:55PM -0700, Chip Salzenberg wrote:
> A daemon that understood such a hot-plug protocol -- call it
> "hotplugd" -- would create and remove plain old device nodes in a
> plain old /dev directory, thus serving the purpose that devfs is
> designed to serve. It could also be configured to execute arbitrary
> user-mode code, in the style of PCMCIA's cardmgr, to handle any
> additional configuration tasks required (ifconfig, route, etc.).
How does this significantly differ from the current module stuff? I'm not
talking about the loading/unloading of modules, but the calling out to user
mode programs to accomplish that.
Rather than having a multitude of mechanisms for kernel->user callbacks
(modules, arpd, hotplugd), each with their own protocols and such, would it
be better to standardize on one method of accomplishing this information
exchange?
kerneld used to be extensible to be able to handle arbitrary stuff
(request-route, for instance). Now why request-route itself may not have
been appreciated, the removal of kerneld as a user program has removed this
mechanism. Also, SYSV IPC may not be the mechanism of choice.
It seems to me that hotplugd would reintroduce a similar mechanism, now
only at a specific level rather than with something more generic and
extensible.
mrc
--
Mike Castle Life is like a clock: You can work constantly
dalgoda@ix.netcom.com and be right all the time, or not work at all
www.netcom.com/~dalgoda/ and be right at least twice a day. -- mrc
We are all of us living in the shadow of Manhattan. -- Watchmen
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