>> However, for the purpose of building a diskless environment on a
>> non-NetBSD server, it would be handy if:
>> 
>> a) there were a dev.tgz package or

It has been pointed out by others that this might not work.

Re: $(()) usage.
>This isn't really a valid concern, in my book.  Shell math is a POSIX
>thing, and UNIX systems which don't provide POSIX (or "close enough to
>POSIX") shells are broken in this day and age.  Sure, the POSIX shell
>might not be /bin/sh on the target system. "so run MAKEDEV with the
>POSIX shell."

Well SunOS 4.1.4 still exists and does not have a POSIX shell
though the pdksh is available...

Even so, I'm begining to think POSIX is a cruel joke... I'm reminded of
systems like HP-UX which _do_ provide a posix/sh but it is just
as buggy as their bin/sh.  The only shell that worked was ksh.

>The real reason that MAKEDEV can't necessarily be run on the server is
>that the server's mknod and device node format may be (grossly 8-)

Yes this is indeed possible (I guess), though given that the "server"
really only needs to be able to create /dev/console and whatever other
devices are needed for netbsd to netboot single user - at which point
you can create the rest of the devices using NetBSD.

Perhaps a portable MAKEDEV.minimum would be a solution?

--sjg