>> >> what if the b and c device entries for the hard disks went to new
>> >> major numbers, with the old majors still active for a release or two?
>> >> surely the drivers don't care...do they?
>> >
>> >Why only b and c ? We need a new major number for each supported disk.
>> 
>> b and c is supposed to mean "block" and "character".  i have no idea
>
>Ok, I understood it as /dev/wd0b and /dev/wd0c :)

no.  that would have been silly.  :)

>> why was being so terse when i wrote that.  and yes, after some more
>> thought, i can see that it would not just be wd and sd devices, but
>> also ccd, fd, raid, cd, mcd, and md.
>
>And maybe some others.

although as i understand it, the major obstacle is that the minor
numbers are crammed together with no space for more partitions, yes?
that's why i suggested the new major number.

   % ls -l wd[01]?
   brw-r-----  1 root  operator  0,  0 Mar  6  1999 wd0a
   ...
   brw-r-----  1 root  operator  0,  7 Mar  6  1999 wd0h
   brw-r-----  1 root  operator  0,  8 Mar  6  1999 wd1a
   ...

there's no room for a wd0i, even if someone decided to make one.

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