>> Excuse my ignorance (I know that sure I am missing something), but why
>> don' t change in /usr/src/linux/include/linux/kdev_t.h from:
>>
>> typedef unsigned short kdev_t;
>>
>> to:
>>
>> typedef unsigned int kdev_t;
>>
>> and we will have magically space for 16 bit minor and major numbers. Then
>> we need to change MINORBITS to 16 and all others 8 to 16...
>
>For the last part, there has been an acceptable work-around for a
>couple of years, so you don't have to recompile all your applications
>- only when they try to stat(2) files with majors >256, they'll run
>into problems. For the other items, there have been proposed
>work-arounds, but no steps have been taken. Since this is a major
>change, people discuss using 64 bits for dev_t, to get it right in the
>long run. Unfortunately, this further complicates things, as some of
>the proposed solutions won't work anymore.
My opinion is to take this hard but right way. devfs is _the_ workaround.
`typedef unsinged int kdev_t' is the right thing to do, since unsigned int
will define a 64 bit variable after 2038. When more than 4 giga of devices
will be connected to linux, linux will be able to recompile all the
software and autopatch itself to handle 2^64 devices major and minor
numbers in less than one nsec :).
Andrea[s] Arcangeli