RE: devfs again, (was RE: USB device allocation)

Shawn Leas (SLEAS@videoupdate.com)
Wed, 6 Oct 1999 16:33:04 -0500


Stephen Frost wrote:
> A thought, that I'm sure has been said before, but...

>/devices -- devfs mountpoint
>/dev -- symlinks in to /devices
> devfs then adds option to have /devices just be a crapload of
>files named 'major,minor' in the old fashion. ;)

That is not the default, and is not quite correct. There is a configuration
where /devices (or wherever, maybe somewhere only readable by root) is the
devfs, and devfsd populates /dev with the correct nodes/links. And, as you
know, when you chown/chmod a link, the target (or the target of the target,
etc) gets the requested action. devfsd then adds persistance to whereever
the devfs is mounted, thereby carrying it over to /dev which devfsd is
populating.

> The problem here is, how do you give permissions to symlinks?
>That's really the kicker, but fix that, and you may have something...

See above.

> I realize this is ugly, but some way to store the permissions in
>the symlink, or have something in there devfs can read real quick to
determine
>if you have permission? I somehow fear a hardlink-type thing wouldn't work
>too well either, but this seems like something that should be possible to
>do, perhaps not, tired, end of day, time ta go home. :)

Again, the only permissions that matter are those kept track of by devfsd on
the devfs mount.

-Shawn

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