Re: making installation easier

[Rob Browning <osiris@cs.utexas.edu>]

sacampbe@mercator.math.uwaterloo.ca writes:

> after detecting a modem sitting at 0x3f8 IRQ 4, it would
> have the default action of doing 'ln -s /dev/ttyS0 /dev/modem'.

> Another benefit of this is we could have a policy of having
> programs use the soft links (like /dev/modem) by default.

Does anyone know what the potential problems associated with symlinks
to devices are, I seem to recall that there are some, but can't recall
what (exactly) they are.  I just mention this so we make sure to
consider it before making policy.

Is it just the lockfile naming issue?  If so, then I suppose if
*every* program respected the symlink, and didn't do an end run to the
actual device, we'd be OK, but it still makes me a little nervous.

Not that I like the alternative of having to modify every script that
references the modem device whenever you change serial ports (say from
ttyS0 to ttyS1) any better, but I just want to be careful.

Thanks
-- 
Rob