From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S271659AbTGRAvJ (ORCPT ); Thu, 17 Jul 2003 20:51:09 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S271662AbTGRAvJ (ORCPT ); Thu, 17 Jul 2003 20:51:09 -0400 Received: from kweetal.tue.nl ([131.155.3.6]:24844 "EHLO kweetal.tue.nl") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S271659AbTGRAvH (ORCPT ); Thu, 17 Jul 2003 20:51:07 -0400 Date: Fri, 18 Jul 2003 03:05:58 +0200 From: Andries Brouwer To: Andries Brouwer , Andrew Morton , miquels@cistron.nl, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] print_dev_t for 2.6.0-test1-mm Message-ID: <20030718030558.B2612@pclin040.win.tue.nl> References: <20030717014410.A2026@pclin040.win.tue.nl> <20030716164917.2a7a46f4.akpm@osdl.org> <20030717122600.A2302@pclin040.win.tue.nl> <20030717131955.D2302@pclin040.win.tue.nl> <20030717145507.3ce5042c.akpm@osdl.org> <20030718002451.A2569@pclin040.win.tue.nl> <20030717224307.GF19891@ca-server1.us.oracle.com> <20030718011115.A2600@pclin040.win.tue.nl> <20030718000444.GG19891@ca-server1.us.oracle.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.2.5.1i In-Reply-To: <20030718000444.GG19891@ca-server1.us.oracle.com>; from Joel.Becker@oracle.com on Thu, Jul 17, 2003 at 05:04:45PM -0700 Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Thu, Jul 17, 2003 at 05:04:45PM -0700, Joel Becker wrote: > Yes, but there is a nice simplicity in saying filesystems that > support 64bit device numbers get the expanded space, and filesystems > that cannot are limited to 16bits. Most modern systems would have an > updated set of filesystems. All pre-existing filesystems have only > 16bit device numbers. All new mknod64() calls will only work on > filesystems that can store 64bits. You are an optimist. My transition is much slower - I am a slow kind of person. There is no flag day. The kernel must be updated, glibc must be updated, user space software must be updated. A long process that will take years. Indeed, so far we have not succeeded in updating the kernel, and eight years went by. Filesystems? Last I looked reiserfs handled 32 bits. Really, we need the three stages - if the middle 32-bit stage is absent too much software breaks. We must go forward slowly. Andries