Subject: Re: Ok, we have been envoked.

From: Chuck Boyer <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 92 08:20:27 -0800

/hdwd0
/hdwd1
/hdwd2.....

/hdscssi0
/hdscssi1
/hdscssi2...

/at0
/at1
/xt0
/xt1

All else looks okay.... as suggested.
chuck

---

From: Theodore Ts'o <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 92 11:27:28 -0500

Date: Tue, 31 Mar 92 08:20:27 -0800
   From: Chuck Boyer <[email-masked]>

   /hdwd0
   /hdwd1
   /hdwd2.....

   /hdscssi0
   /hdscssi1
   /hdscssi2...

Blech!  Those names are ugly!  I would much rather prefer /dev/wd,
/dev/sd, etc.....   People will learn fairly quickly what they are; and
in any case the "d" in "wd" and "sd" should be enough of a tipoff that
we're talking about a disk unit instead of a tape unit.

I would also make a plug for NOT using /dev/disk/XXXX.  I know "modern"
AT&T Unices are trying to do this, but my experience is that it's (1)
painful to type and (2) confuses a lot of programs who expect /dev to be
a flat directory.

As for zero based versus one based for the serial ports, I would make
the argument that (for better or for worse) due to long association with
MS-DOS the hardware ports for the "first" serial port and the "second"
serial port are COM1 and COM2.  While renumbering them to be zero based
may be the Unix Way, I think that it will cause way to much confusion.
I would much rather see /dev/ttys1, /dev/ttys2, /dev/ttys3, and
/dev/ttys4 for COM1, COM2, COM3, and COM4, respectively.

						- Ted

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 92 09:47:11 MST

--------

    /hdwd0
    /hdwd1
    /hdwd2.....

    /hdscssi0
    /hdscssi1
    /hdscssi2...

This is just plain nasty.  Aside from the fact that SCSI is spelled with one
S and not two, normal systems traditionally name their SCSI disks 
/dev/sd[drive][partition], where drive is a number,
and partition a letter.  Normal disks are named in the same way,
with some other prefix.  wd would not be objectionable, hd is 
fairly mnemonic and works well for me.

    /at0
    /at1
    /xt0
    /xt1

Again, counter intuitive.  What the hell is a /dev/at?  Or a /dev/xt? 
What's wrong with /dev/fd[drivenumber][somesort of density code]
--------

---

From: [email-masked] (Bruce Varney)
Date: Tue, 31 Mar 92 12:22:46 EST

How about this:

/dev/hdw[0-9]
/dev/hds[0-9] (for scsi disks)
etc.

Or alternatively:
/dev/whd[0-9]
/dev/shd[0-9]
etc.

Then, prepend an r for the raw disk devices:
/dev/rhdw[0-9] (for character disk devices)
etc.

As for floppies, well, the major and minor numbers should be what determines
the density, and it should be
/dev/fd0, /dev/fd1, etc.
I would have no need for a /dev/fd1ld (or whatever would designate low density).
Simply, for most people, the type of their disk drives is relativiley fixed. 
(i.e., it doesn't change often). mknod /dev/fd[0-9] to the appropriate major
and minor numbers, and off you go.

As for ttys:

/dev/console should refer to the ENTIRE console, not just one virtual
window. This is so that any error message that is printed to the console
will come up on your screen (for the user at the machine itself) no matter
which virtual console you are on.

/dev/tty0 should also be the console, and then start VC's with /dev/tty1
(this makes the tty number correspond with the VC number)

Other (non console, non VC) ttys should be designated slightly differently
(these are things like the modem port). tty[a-z,A-Z] would be a good idea.
If you wish to ln /dev/com1 to /dev/ttya (or whatever) that is fine.

then for ptys, the make /dev/tty[a-z,A-Z][a-z,A-Z] the slave devices, and
/dev/pty[a-z,A-Z][a-z,A-Z] the corresponding master devices.

Of course, /dev/tty still applies to the current tty. 

And then /dev/rmt[0-9] for tape drives.

Well?

			Bruce