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From: rsp@decvax.UUCP (Ricky Palmer)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: magtape device naming conventions
Message-ID: <256@decvax.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 26-Sep-86 23:38:18 EDT
Article-I.D.: decvax.256
Posted: Fri Sep 26 23:38:18 1986
Date-Received: Tue, 30-Sep-86 07:10:47 EDT
References: <3957@brl-smoke.ARPA>
Lines: 30

How about the following?

/dev/{n,r}mt{0,...,N}{l,m,h}

where {n,r} is the usual norewind and/or raw prefix, N is some upper
bound whatever that happens to be and is just a count of units on the
system, while {l,m,h} is "l"ow, "m"edium, or "h"igh density depending
on make and model of the drive. The mnemonics would "float" for
different devices, i.e., on, say, an 800-1600 drive there would only be
a low and high density, on a 1600-6250 drive there would still only be
a low and high density, on an 800-1600-6250 drive there would be a low,
medium, and, high density, but there would only be three "partition"
labels, "l", "m", and "h". For unit 0 on a system you would have:

/dev/rmt0l
/dev/rmt0m
/dev/rmt0h
/dev/nrmt0l
/dev/nrmt0m
/dev/nrmt0h

and so forth, assuming a triple density drive. On a single density drive
"h" would be the only letter used. In fact, you would always be assured
of having "/dev/{n}rmt0h" regardless of type.

	Ultimately, whatever is enunciated in the P1003.2 standardization
effort would probably be the best choice for names.

					Ricky Palmer
					DEC - Ultrix