"David Laight" <David.Laight@btinternet.com> writes:

>> I had to `sh ./MAKEDEV sd5`, as MAKEDEV all didn't work.  I have a series of

>I'd suggest either:
>
>1) writing a startup script that detects which disks (etc) are present
>   and then making the correct /dev entries
>
>2) make /dev an overlay of a kernel generated dircetory structure under
>   a file system one.  The device drivers would make calls to populate
>   the lower layer with nodes that match the current configuration.

why complicate things so much?  if adding disks, you have to do various
things manually anyways (disklabel, newfs), running MAKEDEV is probably
not too time consuming.
I personally strongly dislike startup scripts searching for "new hardware",
like on Windows or RedHat.

--mkb