linux-toradex.git/Documentation/ABI/testing/sysfs-dev, branch v3.10.78 Linux kernel for Apalis and Colibri modules sysfs: add /sys/dev/{char,block} to lookup sysfs path by major:minor 2008-07-22T04:54:40+00:00 Dan Williams dan.j.williams@intel.com 2008-04-21T17:51:07+00:00 e105b8bfc769b0545b6f0f395179d1e43cbee822 Why?: There are occasions where userspace would like to access sysfs attributes for a device but it may not know how sysfs has named the device or the path. For example what is the sysfs path for /dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3160827AS_5MT004CK? With this change a call to stat(2) returns the major:minor then userspace can see that /sys/dev/block/8:32 links to /sys/block/sdc. What are the alternatives?: 1/ Add an ioctl to return the path: Doable, but sysfs is meant to reduce the need to proliferate ioctl interfaces into the kernel, so this seems counter productive. 2/ Use udev to create these symlinks: Also doable, but it adds a udev dependency to utilities that might be running in a limited environment like an initramfs. 3/ Do a full-tree search of sysfs. [kay.sievers@vrfy.org: fix duplicate registrations] [kay.sievers@vrfy.org: cleanup suggestions] Cc: Neil Brown <neilb@suse.de> Cc: Tejun Heo <htejun@gmail.com> Acked-by: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@vrfy.org> Reviewed-by: SL Baur <steve@xemacs.org> Acked-by: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@vrfy.org> Acked-by: Mark Lord <lkml@rtr.ca> Acked-by: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com> Signed-off-by: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com> Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de> 
Why?:
There are occasions where userspace would like to access sysfs
attributes for a device but it may not know how sysfs has named the
device or the path.  For example what is the sysfs path for
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST3160827AS_5MT004CK?  With this change a call to
stat(2) returns the major:minor then userspace can see that
/sys/dev/block/8:32 links to /sys/block/sdc.

What are the alternatives?:
1/ Add an ioctl to return the path: Doable, but sysfs is meant to reduce
   the need to proliferate ioctl interfaces into the kernel, so this
   seems counter productive.

2/ Use udev to create these symlinks: Also doable, but it adds a
   udev dependency to utilities that might be running in a limited
   environment like an initramfs.

3/ Do a full-tree search of sysfs.

[kay.sievers@vrfy.org: fix duplicate registrations]
[kay.sievers@vrfy.org: cleanup suggestions]

Cc: Neil Brown <neilb@suse.de>
Cc: Tejun Heo <htejun@gmail.com>
Acked-by: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@vrfy.org>
Reviewed-by: SL Baur <steve@xemacs.org>
Acked-by: Kay Sievers <kay.sievers@vrfy.org>
Acked-by: Mark Lord <lkml@rtr.ca>
Acked-by: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>
Signed-off-by: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@intel.com>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@suse.de>