Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Bigger process IDs and "dev_t"s (was: Re: RISC v. CISC...)
Message-ID: <1988Nov9.213525.7855@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <156@gloom.UUCP> <6865@winchester.mips.COM> <468@oracle.UUCP> <314@auspex.UUCP> <1988Oct31.183021.13880@utzoo.uucp> <385@auspex.UUCP> <1988Nov7.190335.17023@utzoo.uucp> <10589@tekecs.TEK.COM>
Date: Wed, 9 Nov 88 21:35:25 GMT

In article <10589@tekecs.TEK.COM> andrew@frip.gwd.tek.com (Andrew Klossner) writes:
>Think about diskless nodes with devices.  The /dev file must live on
>the server, so it's a BIG convenience if the major number is uniform
>across all Suns.  You could work around it, sure, but why introduce
>such confusion?

Because you want to minimize the number of major device numbers?  That
was one of my points, if you recall:  unique major numbers are an
administrative convenience, but if you are short of major numbers, all
of a sudden it's not so convenient any more.
-- 
Sendmail is a bug,             |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
not a feature.                 | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu