Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!auspex!guy
From: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: Bigger process IDs and "dev_t"s (was: Re: RISC v. CISC...)
Message-ID: <422@auspex.UUCP>
Date: 9 Nov 88 23:45:09 GMT
References: <10589@tekecs.TEK.COM> <775@mailrus.cc.umich.edu>
Reply-To: guy@auspex.UUCP (Guy Harris)
Organization: Auspex Systems, Santa Clara
Lines: 14

>>The /dev file must live on the server, so it's a BIG convenience if
>>the major number is uniform across all Suns.  
>
>correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't the <major, minor> manufactured
>by the client?  <255, index-in-mnttab>?

The "st_dev" is manufactured by the client, in the fashion you indicate
(more-or-less - I think it may be different in 4.0 so that multiple
distributed file systems can be supported); however, the "st_rdev",
which is what we're talking about, isn't manufactured by the client -
major/minors for special files living on a server are interpreted in the
same way as if they were local to the client (literally - the "specfs"
code handles special files, regardless of whether the special file is
gotten locally or over NFS).