HEADSUP: Change of Makedev() Semantics on FreeBSD

Dan writes "FreeBSD's Poul-Henning Kamp is in the process of adding ref-counting and locking to dev_t, and would very much prefer if this step is completed soon before 5-STABLE gets branched. He says that all this will be transparent to the majority of device drivers, as the refcounting will happen in the make_dev() and destroy_dev() family of calls and normal drivers need not know more about it."

Umm... why post this here?

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously, that's what *-devel mailing lists are for. I doubt that the average (and even the not-so-average) Slashdot reader cares.

(And, this is certainly not the place that FreeBSD device driver writers come to discuss changes to the kernel.)

Re:Umm... why post this here?

[KDan]

It's an evil plan I tell you. They post this random stuff that affects possibly 1 out of 100'000 slashdotters on here and dare call it a topic. Then I make a perfectly reasonable Simspons comparison between the headline (HEADSUP) and Ketchup (CATSUP), and they mod me as troll... tsk tsk tsk...

Daniel

Anything to comment about?

[DrSkwid]

Anyone know why this is a good/bad thing ?

The stuff concerning dev_t on the LKML concerned itself with tty stuff.

Will it really mean the death of tty ? I do hope so.

isatty is a stupid anachronism (which is why plan9 [bell-labs.com] got rid of such idiocy).

Re:Anything to comment about?

[__past__]

Anyone know why this is a good/bad thing?

It's a completly uninteresting thing that will not affect any users, and only a few device driver developers.

The stuff concerning dev_t on the LKML concerned itself with tty stuff.

What does the LKML have to do with anything?

Re:Anything to comment about?

[DrSkwid]

What does the LKML have to do with anything?

L introduced dev_t reference counting in 2.5
I was trying to find out what the features / costs were

In other news

[baywulf]

the second parameter to the kmalloc function has been changed to an unsigned int allowing for increased memory capacity. Users everywhere hail the dawn of a new age where more memory can be allocated.

Do the math

[MarkusQ]

• World population: ~10^9
• Proportion that speak english: ~1/10
• Proportion that speak some form of technical english: ~1/10
• Proportion of those who speak computer english: ~1/10
• Proportion of those who program: ~1/10
• Proportion of those who could write a device driver: ~1/10
• Proportion of those who actual do write device drivers: ~1/10
• Proportion of those who are doing so for *nix: ~1/3
• Proportion of those who are doing so for FreeBSD: ~1/10
• Proportion of those who use mkdev: ~1/2

So even assuming 5% of them read /. to keep up an library changes, less than one person will care. Presumably, that was the poster.

-- MarkusQ

P.S. So what, you may ask, am I doing here? Easy. Some people are croud followers, and rush to the scene of a big fire or train wreck (or, if none are handy, a mall).

I'm not like that.

Re:Is Dying

[Anonymous Coward]

That is why this [uspto.gov] trademark exists.

Mark (words only): LINUX
GOODS AND/OR SERVICES
laundry detergents and laundry bleaches for home use; all purpose cleaning preparations for home use; general purpose scouring powders; skin soap for personal use; perfume; essential oils for personal use; preparations for personal hygiene and cosmetic purposes, namely, hair shampoo, skin toners, shower gel, skin lotions; hair tonic and toothpaste

Does this need a Slashdot article ?

[chrysalis]

I really don't understand why every time a single line of code is changed to this beta version of FreeBSD, a Slashdot article is made.

Moreover something like that one... Except some rare developpers, nobody knows what it actually changes. Just because in fact... nothing changes... only internals. So what's the point?

And the 3.4 OpenBSD song has been released :

http://www.openbsd.org/lyrics.html

Why is there no Slashdot article about this?