linux-kernel - Re: What to do about the 2TB limit on HDIO

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Date:	Tue, 25 Mar 2008 13:37:03 -0400
From:	Mark Lord <lkml@....ca>
To:	"H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@...or.com>
Cc:	Greg KH <gregkh@...e.de>, Jens Axboe <axboe@...nel.dk>,
	Jeff Garzik <jgarzik@...ox.com>, Tejun Heo <htejun@...il.com>,
	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...l.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Linux Kernel <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	IDE/ATA development list <linux-ide@...r.kernel.org>,
	linux-scsi <linux-scsi@...r.kernel.org>
Subject: Re: What to do about the 2TB limit on HDIO_GETGEO ?

H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Mark Lord wrote:
>>
>> Yeah, that would be just as good, really.  Maybe even better.
>>
>> Mark Lord wrote (later on):
>>> Instead, software has to search everything inside /sys/block/
>>> looking for a "dev" file whose contents match,
>>> rather than just trying to access something like this:
>>>
>>>   /sys/block/8:1/start
>>> or
>>>   /sys/block/majors/8/minors/1/start
>>>
>>> Or any one of a number of similar ways to arrange it. 
>> ..
> 
> It shouldn't be under /sys/block... there are enough many things that 
> scan /sys/block and assume any directory underneath it has the current 
> format.
..

So long as we only add things, and not remove them, then any software
that scans /sys/block/ shouldn't care, really.

But yes, it could go elsewhere, too.
Perhaps a /sys/dev/ directory, populated with symbolic links
(or hard links?) back to the /sys/block/ entries, something like this:

   /sys/dev/block/8:0 -> ../../../block/sda
   /sys/dev/block/8:1 -> ../../../block/sda/sda1
   /sys/dev/block/8:2 -> ../../../block/sda/sda2
   ...

That's just a suggestion, really.
And what about character devices?

Perhaps Greg will chime in.
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