From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261824AbTDUSJ5 (ORCPT ); Mon, 21 Apr 2003 14:09:57 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261825AbTDUSJ5 (ORCPT ); Mon, 21 Apr 2003 14:09:57 -0400 Received: from parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk ([195.92.249.252]:15294 "EHLO www.linux.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261824AbTDUSJ4 (ORCPT ); Mon, 21 Apr 2003 14:09:56 -0400 Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 19:21:58 +0100 From: viro@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk To: Christoph Hellwig , Linus Torvalds , Roman Zippel , "David S. Miller" , Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] new system call mknod64 Message-ID: <20030421182158.GM10374@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk> References: <20030421191013.A9655@infradead.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20030421191013.A9655@infradead.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Mon, Apr 21, 2003 at 07:10:13PM +0100, Christoph Hellwig wrote: > On Mon, Apr 21, 2003 at 11:01:21AM -0700, Linus Torvalds wrote: > > Oh, the split has huge meaning inside the kernel. We split the number > > every time we open the device, and use that split to look up the result. > > Not anymore for blockdevices. And now that Al's back not anymore soon > for charater devices, too :) Oh, we certainly _do_ split - simply because there are ranges that belong to same driver (or driver and object). However, the split boundary is not uniform - it depends on driver/object/whatnot. IMO it's a moot point by now, anyway - most of the kernel couldn't care less about device numbers.