Thus spake Lennart Augustsson ("LA> ") sometime Today...

LA> I don't really understand why the metadata problem is considered a problem.
LA> Just keep the metadata in a file.  Every time you make a change to devfs the
LA> devfs driver rewrites the file, and on startup you use the file set modes on
LA> the devfs files.  Now if the hardware changes between reboots you'll have a
LA> problem, but it's the same problem as we have now.

If you wire down devs in the kernel, this shouldn't be a problem either,
at least with regard to devices prone to wandering.

Also, it should probably make some effort to rewrite it as a db so that it
can do a keymatch and overwrite an entry instead of having to rewrite an
entire file.

In short, it would be very similar to having a perpetually journaling FS:

	/dev mounts on devfs
	devfs driver updates from /etc/devfs.db

No different than
	/var mounts on /dev/sd0e
	ffs+j driver updates from wherever the journalling information for
		/var is kept.

/me applies handwavium.  "Never mind that we don't have a ffs+j subsystem
(yet)."

LA>     -- Lennart

				--*greywolf;
--
NetBSD: It's not Windows.