On Sun, 11 Jan 1998, Jason Thorpe wrote:

> On Sun, 11 Jan 1998 17:30:18 -0800 
>  Paul A Vixie <paul@vix.com> wrote:
> 
>  > [ why should device name to device node state be kept in FFS? ]
> 
> Um.. probably because:
> 
> 	(1) There are several problems with a "devfs" approach, including
> 	    non-persistence of chmod's and symlinks.
> 
> 	(2) There are some programs out there that like to compare dev_t's
> 	    to see if e.g. file foo is on the same file system as file bar.

I can understand your objection in point #1.  However, in point #2 I don't
see why a device node ID that is dynamically at boot time should cause any
program to have a problem identifying and differentiating between the
device nodes of two different filesystems.  Do the programs your allude to
keep their state across reboots?  Maybe you're thinking of some NFS
problem?  Please explain.

-J