From: Matthias Urlichs (urlichs@smurf.sub.org)
Date: 02/12/93


From: urlichs@smurf.sub.org (Matthias Urlichs)
Subject: Re: A warning
Date: 13 Feb 1993 00:03:30 +0100

In comp.os.linux, article <1993Feb12.040037.10135@sol.UVic.CA>,
  pmacdona@sanjuan (Peter MacDonald) writes:
>
> More importantly, I want to refine the communications subsystem. This
> means streamlining the install and configure for tcpip, mail, news, etc.
> Both for serial, and for ethernet. The last piece to come will be
> SLIP. Then I will be happy (ya right).
>

I just patched the /proc file system to return a few kernel facts which might
be useful for this:

% cat /proc/char_dev
1 memory
4 tty
5 tty
6 lp
9 scsi
10 mouse
% : same with block_dev; I just didn't reboot yet...
% cat /proc/fstypes
minix
ext
msdos
proc
nfs
iso9660
%

Should be useful for MAKEDEV and mount, respectively.

/proc might not be the best possible place for this stuff, but it was the
easiest. ;-) Besides, maybe sometimes Linus gets real dynamically-loadable
drivers, and then it _will_ make sense. ;-)

NB, the patch is a bit largish (26k). What's the most sensible place to
submit such things? Is there a list of maintainers of various Linux bits
and pieces somewhere? (The FAQ might be a good place for this.)
NB2: The patch also cleans up a few loose end; eg, every file system
has almost-identical chardev.c, blockdev.c, and fifo.c files.

-- 
Anatidaephobia:  The fear that somewhere, somehow, a duck is watching you.
-- 
Matthias Urlichs  --  urlichs@smurf.sub.org -- urlichs@smurf.ira.uka.de   /(o\
Humboldtstrasse 7 -- 7500 Karlsruhe 1 -- Germany  --  +49-721-9612521     \o)/