Chris Torek <torek@BSDI.COM> writes:

> Now, the *naming* of the dial-out devices is a bit tricky.

It's not really tricky.  You just have to not be stupid about it.  B-)

> The names should
> be like disk raw-vs-block names: /dev/ttyXYZ and /dev/dtyXYZ, or
> /dev/ttyXYZ and /dev/dialXYZ, or /dev/ttys/XYZ and /dev/dial/XYZ,
> or whatever.  The exact naming is not important, as long as it is
> consistent.

I was assuming that the names would have the same suffix as the normal
tty devices, with s/tty/cua/.  Seems pretty consistent.

> The "kernel magic" could be implemented entirely in common code, so
> that one would only have to get it right in one place.

As you can see, I already did that.  It even eliminates existing
duplication of code.

> Unfortunately, POSIX mandates all the silliness with CLOCAL and
> nonblocking opens and such.

It turns out that a side effect of making it really compatible with
SunOS is that it works exactly the same as before if you're not using
the dialout device -- so anyone who has a religious objection to using
the kernel support can simply choose to not do so.  B-)


I actually leaned toward lock files for a long time (and even got Curt
to add lock file support to getty a while back), but when I realized
that lock files Just Don't Work if I want to give a serial port to a
random user, that pretty much clinched it in my mind.