From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S264251AbTDKACE (for ); Thu, 10 Apr 2003 20:02:04 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264117AbTDKACE (for ); Thu, 10 Apr 2003 20:02:04 -0400 Received: from hera.cwi.nl ([192.16.191.8]:28140 "EHLO hera.cwi.nl") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S264091AbTDKACD (for ); Thu, 10 Apr 2003 20:02:03 -0400 From: Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl Date: Fri, 11 Apr 2003 02:13:07 +0200 (MEST) Message-Id: To: Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl, zippel@linux-m68k.org Subject: Re: [patch for playing] Patch to support 4000 disks and maintain backward compatibility Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org, pbadari@us.ibm.com Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org From: Roman Zippel > The conclusion is that the easy way out is to define MAX_NR_DISKS. > A different way out, especially when we use 32+32, is to kill this > sd_index_bits[] array, and give each disk a new number: replace > index = find_first_zero_bit(sd_index_bits, SD_DISKS); > by > index = next_index++; Unless you fix all programs which scan /dev/sg*, you better keep the used range dense, so this not really option. That only holds for the first 256 minors (of the first 8 majors). Since we want to be completely backwards compatible, nothing changes there. But people who want to use new features must update their programs or at least recompile. Andries