*BSD News Article 15987


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From: deraadt@fsa.ca (Theo de Raadt)
Subject: Naming convention for tty-like devices
Message-ID: <DERAADT.93May7134937@newt.fsa.ca>
Sender: news@fsa.ca
Nntp-Posting-Host: newt.fsa.ca
Organization: little lizard city
Date: Fri, 7 May 1993 20:49:37 GMT
Lines: 39

Holger.Veit@gmd.de writes:
> 
> So we should negotiate a naming scheme for all these
> devices. My proposal is the following:
> 
> 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]

1. I don't see any rational for making dialin, dialout, and non-birectional
serial devices have different names. They will after all have the same 
major/minor numbers no matter what.

> pseudo ttys:    tty[pqrst][0-9a-f]

No. tty[pqrstPQRST][0-9a-f], ie. as it always has been.

> non-bidirectional serial: com[0-9a-f] or ttyd[0-9a-f]

Only need one serial type device. The high bit of the minor number can
be used to indicate whether DTR should be used or not (ie. same as Sun).
The names then are tty[0-f][0-f]. The first number is the serial
controller board. The second number is the subdevice on that controller
card. cua[0-f][0-f] has exactly the same major number, and minor # + 128.
cua's and tty's in this set have mutually exclusive opens.

> virtual consoles: tty[0-9][0-9]

This isn't very rational. You are going to have more than 16 of them?
I would suggest just ttyx[0-f], where x is any letter that has not been
used elsewhere yet.

But the tty names should ALWAYS start with tty.
 <tdr.
--

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