Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!ut-emx.UUCP!clyde
From: clyde@ut-emx.UUCP (Clyde W. Hoover)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: is this wise?
Keywords: /dev/stdin, /dev/hosts
Message-ID: <12765@ut-emx.UUCP>
Date: 4 May 89 14:17:42 GMT
References: <1563@auspex.auspex.com> <378@chessene.UUCP>
Sender: news@ut-emx.UUCP
Lines: 38

Deja-vu!  In the old days when the ARPANET used NCP and the highest UNIX release
was V6, (anyone remember 'smalldaemon' and 'largedaemon'?) a 
version of the UIUC networking code worked much like that.

To open a network connection, one did something like:

	fd = open("/dev/net/sri-nic", 2, &mumble);
	/*
	 * Host number was in the inode - either minor device # or in the
	 * direct block list - major device number was 'network'
	 */

Which evolved to (still pre-TCP):

	mumble.addr = host-number;
	mumble.timeout = XXX;
	mumble.slag = slag;
	fd = open("/dev/network", 2, &mumble);

Which with the advent of TCP and multiple protocol suites evolved into the socket
idea currently in use.

Can you IMAGINE having EVERY hostname AND alias AND IP-number out there in your
/dev?  Or modifying namei to recognize "/dev/network" and not actually require
all those files to exist?  Ugh.  As troublesome as setting up sockets can be,
they are so much better than anything that came before (I know, I've messed with
much of what came before).

Commonly available convience routines would be nice, however.
Take 20 minutes and write some.  Take 2 hours and document them.

	-Clyde Hoover

Shouter-To-Dead-Parrots @ Univ. of Texas Computation Center; Austin, Texas  
	clyde@emx.utexas.edu; ...!cs.utexas.edu!ut-emx!clyde

Tip #268: Don't feel insecure or inferior! Remember, you're ORGANIC!!
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