Re: LANANA: To Pending Device Number Registrants

[Alexander Viro]

On Tue, 15 May 2001, Alan Cox wrote:

> to
> 
>       /* Use scsi if possible [scsi, ide-scsi, usb-scsi, ...] */
>       if(HAS_FEATURE_SET(fd, "scsi-tape"))
>               ...
>       else if(HAS_FEATURE_SET(fd, "floppy-tape"))
>               ..

Alan, if we are doing that we might as well use saner interface than
ioctl(2). In case you've mentioned we don't want "make device SYS$FOO17
do special action OP$LOUD$BARF4269". We want "make device rewind the tape".
Or "tell us geometry". Or "eject the media". Application doesn't
_care_ whether it is ejecting floppy on Sun or IDE CD, or SCSI
CD or ZIP disk sitting on parallel port. The fact that currently it
has to know is a Bad Thing(tm).

At the very least we need ioctls sorted by function, not by device.

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