Extending the UNIX pathname syntax

[louie at umd5.UUCP]

In article <10102 at brl-tgr.ARPA> scc%cl-steve.cam at ucl-cs.arpa (Stephen Crawley) writes:
>In more general terms, it ought to be possible to pass device or socket
>specific parameters in the open() pathname.  When resolving a pathname, the
>kernel knows that the inode corresponding to rmt0 is a special file.  Why not
>simply pass any characters following rmt0/ through to the device driver's open
>routine for interpretation?  The string after the / does not even have to
>conform to the contentional pathname syntax.

In fact, this is already implemented in a version of UNIX for the Sperry
1100 series hardware.  UNIX on the Sperry runs "on top" of the existing
1100 OS.  There is a driver in UNIX that allows users in the UNIX
environment to access regular OS1100 files and elements.  The way that
you do this is
		/u/QUAL*FILE.ELT

where stuff after the /u/ is interpreted as an 1100 file or element name.
There's a hack in namei() to detect the special i-node for /u.

	
-- 
Louis A. Mamakos WA3YMH   University of Maryland, Computer Science Center
 Internet: louie at umd5.arpa
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