Re: Should osst call cdev_alloc()

[Willem Riede <wrlk@riede.org>]

On 10/23/2004 04:56:06 PM, Kai Makisara wrote:
> On Sat, 23 Oct 2004, Willem Riede wrote:
> 
> > Currently, sg.c and st.c contain calls to cdev_alloc() and friends:
> >
> > My question is: should osst do the same? It seems to work just fine
> without.
> >
> The reason why st.c calls cdev_alloc() directly is that this allows it to
> use the large minor numbers (some people want to use more than 32 tapes).
> This also used to give presence in sysfs but that is not the case any
> more. The devices can be shown in sysfs using device classes (st.c uses
> the class_simple_* functions).
> 
> Osst does call cdev_alloc() indirectly through register_chrdev(). This is
> the link between the "old style" character device allocation and the
> current method. As long as register_chrdev() exists, you don't have any
> pressing need to change osst unless you want to support more than 256
> minors.

Thanks. Given that the Onstream devices were targeted at the low end market, I  
see no need to support many drives of this type, so I'll leave it as it is.

Willem Riede.