Re: [PATCH][7/7] add xattr support to ramfs

[Valdis . Kletnieks]

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 13:59:43 PDT, Greg KH said:

> What's wrong with using a tmpfs for udev in such situations that xattrs
> are needed?  udev does not require ramfs at all.  In fact, why not just
> use a ext2 or ext3 partition for /dev instead today, if you really need
> it?

Somehow, 'mount /dev/some-ext3-partition /dev' strikes me as having an innate
bootstrapping issue :) (Yes, I know there's initial setup magic needed in an
initrd to get a *working* udev up and running on a /dev on tmpfs).

The underlying end goal is to allow a configuration such as "/dev on a
tmpfs and not break with SELinux or other xattr-using system".  This
has several wins:

1) You can mount / with 'nodev' (currently, / is the only partition on this
machine *not* mounted with 'nodev')..

2) /dev loses all the "legacy" entries your particular box doesn't need:
# find /dev -type b -o -type c | wc -l
19200
# find /udev -type b -o -type c | wc -l
211
(On a laptop running Fedora Core)

3) As mentioned, less bootstrapping issues for initrd systems that may need
a /dev in order to get to a partition (LVM/raid/etc)

4) Having udev-on-tmpfs work even under SELinux would be just one more
thing to use against any remaining devfs infidels. ;)

(And yes, the lack of xattr support is the only reason I'm not already using
udev-on-tmpfs for a /dev)....

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