> > if it's generic enough as you say, it shouldn't be in scsipi/.
> > 
> 
> Yes, I will be moving it - probably to kern/tape_utils.c due to issues
> with some machines not having any scsipi at all.  I cannot see any
> neat way of determining whether scsipi is configured in or not so I
> cannot conditionally include "st.h".  Unfortunately, this will be dead
> code on non-scsipi machines.

i think you can use config(9) facilities to make any tape devices require
the code.  (like wlan does)
i still don't understand why these tape-specific code is necessary, tho.

> > it seems like unnecessary code duplication to me.
> > 
> 
> There are some error conditions in the disk stats handling that can
> cause a kernel panic, for a disk that makes sense but for a tape these
> errors may not be so critical.

can you give me an example?

can't you solve it by adding some "if (tape)" conditions?

YAMAMOTO Takashi