Matthew Jacob wrote:
>
> > If we define new ioctls for Linux, they end up being non-portable. Instead
> > of this we could as well define /proc entries for this kind of information
> > (this is in my list of things to do for 2.5).
>
> Most mtio type ioctls are already non-portable.
But most of them can be "wrapped" to present a coherent interface to
applications software. Unfortunately, this ends up being a
least-common-denominator type approach, where the "wrapper" function can only
take advantage of those capabilities available on all involved platforms. I
suspect Kai was mostly saying that adding too much stuff to the mtio ioctl
would not help most applications due to those portability issues.
I like the notion of /proc entries. For static information like, e.g., max
block size, that doesn't change for a drive during the time that it is active
in the SCSI subsystem, this is a perfect place to stick it. Then we can leave
the mtio status call for dynamic stuff that can change during the lifetime of
the device, like what the current fixed block size is. Not cross-platform
portable, of course, but then the mtio stuff isn't either.
--
Eric Lee Green [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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Enhanced Software Technologies, Inc. http://www.estinc.com/
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