Re: Migrating to larger numbers

H. Peter Anvin (hpa@transmeta.com)
Mon, 07 Jun 1999 17:14:57 -0700

Alan Cox wrote:
>
> > I wonder if it might be possible to do something special for NFS, like
> > maybe make for NFS consumption a special file system where specific 64
> > bit device numbers are mapped into a 32 bit range... [And didn't I
> > already see some posts about device number aliasing?]
>
> Nobody else has needed more than 32bits. Show me a case it is needed and
> an OS that suffers from using 32bits. Then you can argue about ruining NFS
> interoperability for the sake of some airy number guessing.

The SCSI people are the main people that have asked for it.

Note that I didn't say that we should do this... I only said let's keep
the remaining bits in our back pocket as spares; I wasn't proposing we
would actively use them.

-hpa

-- 
"The user's computer downloads the ActiveX code and simulates a 'Blue
Screen' crash, a generally benign event most users are familiar with
and that would not necessarily arouse suspicions."
-- Security exploit description on http://www.zks.net/p3/how.asp


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