Re: devfs: multiple names for devices

James Mastros (root@jennifer-unix.dyn.ml.org)
Wed, 14 Jan 1998 23:41:24 -0500 (EST)

On 13 Jan 1998, Robert Bihlmeyer wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I see multiple names for my SCSI disks - perhaps more such things will
> come in the future. I'd rather like symlinks, e.g. sda -> sd_blah,
> because
>
> * you'll know which is the "official" name, and which are only aliases
> for compatibility/ease of use/etc.
> * if you see an alias, you ls -l shows you the official name - you
> don't have to hunt it down.
>
> Are there any deficiencies for symlinks (for example, speed)?
>
> Robbe

Memory fragmentation would probably be a BIG issue. You have short
[kv]malloc-ed reigions, which normally last for the remainder of the uptime.
We really need some sort of active memory defragmentation... Then again,
almost all of the reigions would be allocated near boottime (before init is
loaded), so they should be around other reigions with similar lifetimes.
But I think that supporting files with contents would definitly be a win
(the VFS can handle pretty much everything except the acatual storing and
reading of file contents).

-=- James Mastros

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