Re: Why do we need /dev

[Arjan van de Ven <arjan@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, 2006-10-10 at 18:17 +0530, Jinesh K J wrote:
> > >
> > > int register_chrdev_region(dev_t from, unsigned count, const char *name)
> > >
> > > I really don't want to see a 'dev_t' up there (though I know that it
> > > can be ignored). Those numbers should be dealt within the kernel. Why
> > > would anyone wanna set those numbers manually?
> >
> > you mean to say when creating a new device in /dev from user land?
> 
> No. That is now handled by udev and sysfs.
> 
> What I was saying about was that the driver writer need not know how
> the kernel handles devices internally(using major and minor numbers).
> The concept of major and minor numbers does not seem to cook well now
> a days. Does it?

well some drivers need to for historic reasons.
Also you seem to make an artificial separation between kernel and
drivers; in linux they're one and the same; the drivers are an integral
part of the kernel.



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