From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S265846AbUAECJp (ORCPT ); Sun, 4 Jan 2004 21:09:45 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S265847AbUAECJp (ORCPT ); Sun, 4 Jan 2004 21:09:45 -0500 Received: from sccrmhc13.comcast.net ([204.127.202.64]:461 "EHLO sccrmhc13.comcast.net") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S265846AbUAECJn (ORCPT ); Sun, 4 Jan 2004 21:09:43 -0500 To: viro@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: udev and devfs - The final word References: <20040104000840.A3625@pclin040.win.tue.nl> <20040104034934.A3669@pclin040.win.tue.nl> <20040104142111.A11279@pclin040.win.tue.nl> <20040104230104.A11439@pclin040.win.tue.nl> <200401042335.i04NZqQZ029910@turing-police.cc.vt.edu> <87k747w4ow.fsf@jbms.ath.cx> <20040105015828.GA4176@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk> From: Jeremy Maitin-Shepard Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2004 21:12:22 -0500 In-Reply-To: <20040105015828.GA4176@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk> (viro@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk's message of "Mon, 5 Jan 2004 01:58:28 +0000") Message-ID: <87hdzbta7t.fsf@jbms.ath.cx> User-Agent: Gnus/5.1005 (Gnus v5.10.5) Emacs/21.3.50 (gnu/linux) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org viro@parcelfarce.linux.theplanet.co.uk writes: > On Sun, Jan 04, 2004 at 08:43:27PM -0500, Jeremy Maitin-Shepard wrote: >> Unfortunately, programs such as tar depend on inode numbers of distinct >> files being distinct even when the file is not open over a period of >> several minutes/seconds. This is needed to avoid dumping hard links >> more than once. Furthermore, there is no efficient way to write >> programs such as tar without depending on this capability. Thus, if >> st_ino cannot be used reliably for this purpose, it would be useful for >> there to be a system call for retrieving a true >> unique-within-the-filesystem identifier for the file. > No such thing. It's not the matter of having a syscall to extract such > identifier - it's that on a lot of filesystems (including many common Unix > ones) there's nothing that would qualify. Even if the files in question aren't being modified, created, deleted, etc.? Even if nothing on the filesystem is being modified, created, deleted, etc.? > [snip] -- Jeremy Maitin-Shepard