From: rafetmad@cheshire.oxy.edu (David Giller) Subject: Re: Problems with SLS .99pl4 (released 1/31/93) Date: Tue, 9 Feb 1993 01:59:05 GMT
jon@robots.ox.ac.uk wrote:
>In article <1993Feb5.052543.9528@nwnexus.WA.COM> vince@halcyon.com (Vince Skahan) writes:
>>make sure you remember the 's' in /dev/ttyS1 (com2) is upper case now...
>I noticed this in the latest ALPHA kernel patch, is there any reason for this
>change apart to cause confusion and problems with those of us whose /dev
>directory hasn't been changed for the last 12 months? I can't say I have
>ever known any unix varient to use uppercase letters in device names before.
It's because ttys1 conflicts with the ptys. Ptys have names in the
ranges of [tp]ty[pqrs][0-9a-f], and the old names for the serial ports
conflicted.
IMHO (not that it matters now, people are too wrapped up in the
existing names) the com ports should be on tty[0-9][0-9a-f] and special
async cards can come in as tty[hjkl][0-9a-f]. Virtual consoles could
then be ttyc[0-9a-f] or ttyv[0-9a-f], or even vc[0-9a-f]. Obviously,
no one is ever going to use all these, but this is consistent with
other *nices, especially the SunOS machines I've been on.
I don't think there's anything that says that uppercase device names
aren't allowed. Don't some SCO configurations use uppercase letters?
-Dave
-- David Giller, Box 134 | Q: How many Oregonians does it take to screw in a light Occidental College | bulb? A: Three. One to replace the bulb, and two to 1600 Campus Road | fend off all the Californians trying to share the Los Angeles, CA 90041 | experience. ---------------------------rafetmad@oxy.edu