devfs doesn't set access rights

[Brooks Davis]

On Tue, Dec 13, 2005 at 07:04:18PM +0100, Roland Smith wrote:
> On Tue, Dec 13, 2005 at 08:49:47AM -0800, Brooks Davis wrote:
> > On Tue, Dec 13, 2005 at 05:37:09PM +0100, [LoN]Kamikaze wrote:
> > > On my FreeBSD 6-stable (the last build is less then 24hours ago) my
> > > devfs doesn't apply permissions set in /etc/devfs.conf when I attach new
> > > devices. I have to call:
> > > /etc/rc.d/devfs restart
> > > manually for the settings to be applied. This is rather uncomfortable in
> > > some cases (especially with my PDA).
> > > 
> > > I don't know weather this is the normal behaviour, anyway if it is,
> > > shouldn't devfs be restarted automatically as soon as external devices
> > > (usb, firewire, ir) are attached?
> > 
> > This is normal.  devfs.conf is for boot only, you need devfs.rules for
> > runtime.  Unfortunatly, the documentation of this fact and the
> > docuementation of devfs.rules sucks.
> 
> Hmm, it's quite explicitly mentioned in the manual pages for devfs.conf and
> devfs.rules. 
> 
> Feel free to suggest improvements...

90% of the problem is the existence of devfs.conf. devfs(8) appears
capable of everything it does, but we still have two ways to do it which
is gratuitously confusing.  The devfs(8) documentation is lacking in a
complete, working example, any documentation of the rc.conf variables
(which also aren't documented in rc.conf(5) either), and any mention of
that the purpose or usage of lines like:

[devfsrules_unhide_basic=2]

Setting the mode of a device node really ought to be trivial, but last
time I looked at it I was clearly missing something and couldn't get it
working.  I decided the device in question really ought to be attached
at boot and thus gave up and used devfs.conf since I had productive
work to do.  Some cook easy to use cookbook example would be really
helpful for those who don't have time to figure out all the details.
Comparativly few people will want to do anything more than make a device
or two more accessable.

-- Brooks

-- 
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