> to find where the other disks have gone to, and to fix vfstab.
>
> If you are going to merge devices from a set of drivers into a single
> list, then you have to be very careful to ensure that they don't get
> renumbered if the hardware is reconfigured.  Typically this involves

exactly. i think it's excellent to have for example:

rtk0, ex0, ex1, ex2 and know that it's first realtek NIC, first 3com nic,
second 3com nic etc...

the same with serial boards. it's nice to know that tty00, tty01 is 2
standard PC serials, for example 3,4 (as i hardwired) on my extra 2-port
PCI card etc...

on one linux server with 3 8-port PCI cards i do renaming/setserial to
make devices like:

/dev/ttyS0, S1 - standard 2 serials
/dev/P1/[12345678] - 8 ports on 1-st card
/dev/P2/[12345678] - 8 ports on 2-nd card
/dev/P3/[12345678] - 8 ports on 3-rd card


so when i connect new leased line modem on 3-rd connector of 2-nd card i
don't need to check what tty it is (and what tty it will be tomorrow ;)) i
just use /dev/P2/3

> keepeing the map is a file.  I did something similar giving interface
> names to ethernet drivers (so they were always eth<n> regardless of the

and it is disadventage.
in linux you have eth*. and with 20 ethernet ports (5 4-port NICs) we
could say "what eth will it be today?" ;)
with netbsd it's JUST FINE (tm) :)