From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S265652AbUBCBEc (ORCPT ); Mon, 2 Feb 2004 20:04:32 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S265631AbUBCBCg (ORCPT ); Mon, 2 Feb 2004 20:02:36 -0500 Received: from dp.samba.org ([66.70.73.150]:45222 "EHLO lists.samba.org") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S265647AbUBCBCK (ORCPT ); Mon, 2 Feb 2004 20:02:10 -0500 From: Rusty Russell To: Martin Schlemmer Cc: Greg KH , viro@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk, Linux Kernel Mailing Lists Subject: Re: module-init-tools/udev and module auto-loading In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 02 Feb 2004 21:02:30 +0200." <1075748550.6931.10.camel@nosferatu.lan> Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2004 11:55:33 +1100 Message-Id: <20040203010224.4CF742C261@lists.samba.org> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In message <1075748550.6931.10.camel@nosferatu.lan> you write: > > This does not cover the class of things which are entirely created by > > the driver (eg. dummy devices, socket families), so cannot be > > "detected". Many of these (eg. socket families) can be handled by > > explicit request_module() in the core and MODULE_ALIAS in the driver. > > Some of them cannot at the moment: the first the kernel knows of them > > is an attempt to open the device. Some variant of devfs would solve > > this. > > > > I guess there will be cries of murder if 'somebody' suggested that if > a node in /dev is opened, but not there, the kernel can call > 'modprobe -q /dev/foo' to load whatever alias there might have been? I think it's an excellent idea, although ideally we would have this mechanism in userspace as much as possible. Anything from some special hack to block -ENOENT on directory lookups and notify an fd, to some exotic overlay filesystem. I'm sure Al Viro has an opinion on this... Cheers, Rusty. -- Anyone who quotes me in their sig is an idiot. -- Rusty Russell.