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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mel.connect.com.au!munnari.OZ.AU!spool.mu.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!gatech!newsfeed.internetmci.com!newsxfer2.itd.umich.edu!agate!violet.berkeley.edu!jkh From: jkh@violet.berkeley.edu (Jordan K. Hubbard) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Re: New Install / Observations & Gripes Date: 9 Jan 1996 03:12:42 GMT Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 39 Message-ID: <4csmfa$eo2@agate.berkeley.edu> References: <DKup49.M1t@bnr.ca> <4cqk44$3gt@agate.berkeley.edu> <4crpbm$hja@sol.ctr.columbia.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: violet.berkeley.edu In article <4crpbm$hja@sol.ctr.columbia.edu>, Bill Paul <wpaul@ctr.columbia.edu> wrote: >Uh.... wait a minute. (*sound of Bill rummaging around for his soapbox >and fire-retardant jockey shorts*) > > [slams devfs as Not Invented Yet and overkill to boot] > [suggests Not Invented Yet devinfo as solution] Sorry, Bill, but I tried that. I have, in fact, a bunch of code just sitting in a directory here which detects many of the devices on the system using code I ripped screaming out of lsdev and hacked to be a general library of lookup procedures. The only problem with it is that it just doesn't work. Those devices that actually *have* any form of working devinfo support in them are invariably lacking even the most basic sort of class information ("is ``cdr0'' a CDROM or the Car Decal Recognition device driver?"). Those devices which *do* have class information more frequently than not have the WRONG class information. In short, devinfo is just as unusable as devfs. Funny you should mention it, but I just pinged Garrett on this again last week. I asked him if the whole thing was ready for me to revisit yet (having complained vociferously to him ere I last ran up against the mountain of bogosity that is devinfo) and he said "No" if anything, it was worse now. And so I put it to Bill, self-proclaimed crotchety old traditionalist stick in the mud that he is: "I'll be happy to use devinfo if you're willing to make it work, first!" Oh, and bear in mind that you'll have to duke out `the proper approach' (e.g. "xxx finally screams longer and louder than yyy and zzz, causing them to cede victory to xxx") with Poul-Henning and Garrett! Apparently there's a bit of a mini-war going on over it right now. So enjoy yourself, and please let me know when I can use devinfo successfully in sysinstall! :-) Jordan