Re: lib/39215: getdevmajor()/major() types don't match

[Matthias Drochner <M.Drochner%fz-juelich.de@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR lib/39215; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Matthias Drochner <M.Drochner%fz-juelich.de@localhost>
To: David Holland <dholland%eecs.harvard.edu@localhost>
Cc: Christos Zoulas <christos%zoulas.com@localhost>, 
gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost,
        lib-bug-people%NetBSD.org@localhost, gnats-admin%NetBSD.org@localhost,
        netbsd-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost
Subject: Re: lib/39215: getdevmajor()/major() types don't match 
Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:44:06 +0200

 [major/minor numbers]
 dholland%eecs.harvard.edu@localhost said:
 > Well, in general they should be the same size as dev_t
 
 There is no technical reason. As long as the information of
 major/minor fits into the dev_t it is fine.
 Major numbers are used as index into devsw, and minors into
 device_t instance arrays. These are operations done at
 runtime a lot, so one shouldn't use more than the processor
 can handle natively.
 Majors and minors are used only locally... not quite, there
 is NFSv3 which transfers them explicitely, as 32-bit values
 each. Would need some work to implement a translation layer.
 
 best regards
 Matthias
 
 
 
 
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