linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH v3] mmc: add config and runtime option for number of mmcblk minors

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Message-ID: <20100908155721.GD23745@lixom.net>
Date:	Wed, 8 Sep 2010 10:57:21 -0500
From:	Olof Johansson <olof@...om.net>
To:	Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@...y.org>
Cc:	Lei Wen <adrian.wenl@...il.com>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	linux-mmc@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org,
	Mandeep Baines <msb@...omium.org>
Subject: Re: [PATCH v3] mmc: add config and runtime option for number of
	mmcblk minors

On Wed, Sep 08, 2010 at 05:19:25PM +0200, Kay Sievers wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 16:57, Olof Johansson <olof@...om.net> wrote:
> > On Wed, Sep 08, 2010 at 10:25:58PM +0800, Lei Wen wrote:
> >
> >> The patch's purpose is good. As modern sd&mmc is used to host the file
> >> system, the 8 partition limitation is becoming a kind of bottleneck...
> >> But why not just add GENHD_FL_EXT_DEVT flag to allow mmc use extended
> >> partition numbers?
> >
> > No need to quote the whole patch next time. :)
> >
> > Given that MMC is sometimes used in deeply embedded environments where
> > udev might not be running to take care of dynamic device numbering,
> > I chose to stay with a static layout.
> >
> > I could be convinced otherwise though. It would cause some additional
> > hassles for me since we start udev lateish during boot and have a
> > prepopulated /dev before that, but that can be dealt with.
> 
> I think the extended number are only used for stuff larger than the static 8?

Ah, yes, of course.

> Apart from that, you can not reliably or securely use a static /dev
> these days, you never know which device you talk to, because the
> kernel has far too many dynamically assigned numbers. For that reason,
> most embedded setups use the busybox hack to populate /dev. Recent
> kernels have a devfs again, and there is no reason today to continue
> any static /dev experiments -- unless someone is going over the entire
> tree and fixes all the dynamic assignments, which is unlikely to
> happen ever.

Yeah, it's a weak argument but I wanted to go for the least surprising
one for anyone who still relies on static numbering of mmc, since it's
used as root device, etc.

But with the first 8 minors being the same as before, there's little
reason to care about that -- the EXT_DEVT approach will actually be
the smaller change, since it won't renumber anything, just extend in a
different part of the address space.

Lei, want to submit a proper patch for it to replace mine?


-Olof
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