*BSD News Article 15821


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Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.development
Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!saimiri.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!menudo.uh.edu!uuneo!sugar!peter
From: peter@NeoSoft.com (Peter da Silva)
Subject: Re: Naming convention for tty-like devices
Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
Date: Sat, 8 May 1993 11:49:38 GMT
Message-ID: <C6pI6r.6AB@sugar.NeoSoft.COM>
References: <1993May7.140046.1826@gmd.de>
Lines: 43

In article <1993May7.140046.1826@gmd.de> veit@mururoa.gmd.de (Holger Veit) writes:
> pseudo ttys:    tty[pqrst][0-9a-f]
> dialin serial:  ttyd[0-9a-f]
> dialout serial: cua[0-9a-f]
> non-bidirectional serial: com[0-9a-f] or ttyd[0-9a-f]
> virtual consoles: tty[0-9][0-9]

I have a suggestion. Change 'ps' so it looks in some text file to find which
device files are ttys. Then make the names more meaningful:

	com0/1		Standard PC com ports.
	comd0/1		Matching dialout lines
	tty[0-9][0-9]	Multiport com cards.
	ttyd[0-9][0-9]	Matching dialout lines.
	pty[0-9][0-9]	Pseudo ttys
	con[0-9][0-9]	Consoles

Or some equivalent. Perhaps the System V scheme:

	tty00/01	PC com ports
	tty[1-9]*	Multiport cards
	cua*		Matching dialout ports
	pty*		Pseudottys
	vt*		Consoles

In any case, 'ps' should be made smarter.

I'd like to clean up /dev a bunch anyway... create /dev/dsk and /dev/rdsk
and /dev/rmt directories for the various drive/tape entry points. Perhaps
each multiple entry point driver should have a separate directory. That
would clean up the tty mess too:

	/dev/com/tty[01]
	/dev/com/cua[01]
	/dev/ast/tty[0123]
	/dev/ast/cua[0123]
	/dev/pty/tty[0-9][0-9]
	/dev/con/tty[0-9][0-9]
-- 
Peter da Silva.  <peter@sugar.neosoft.com>.
 `-_-'   Har du kramat din varg idag?
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"Det er min ledsager, det er ikke drikkepenge."