devctl for non-devd userland processes

[M. Warner Losh]

In message: <200305010115.05326.cbiffle at safety.net>
            "Cliff L. Biffle" <cbiffle at safety.net> writes:
: Good ${time_of_day}!
: 
: I'm hacking on KDE's laptop hardware monitoring support (ACPI, battery, 
: hardware detection, etc.).  I'd like to be able to provide device 
: notification -- for example, notifying the user when a PCMCIA device is 
: recognized and what device it's been bound to.  In my mind, the logical way 
: to do this is devctl -- it's a generic interface and an elegant mechanism.  
: However, devd is already sucking on devctl.

Correct.

: Do you have any existing plans for providing a mechanism for non-devd 
: processes to play nice with devd, in terms of devctl?  The sorts of options 
: that pop into my head are a userland socket/pipe interface to devd, or even 
: cloning for devctl (though that strikes me as excessive, perhaps).

Device cloning was what I had in mind.  I really don't want to deal
with multiple userland processes just to have devd run.

: If you don't have any plans along these lines, I'll either work
: around it for now or work out an interface and toss patches into the
: fray.

I'm most partial to a cloning device, but I might be talked into
something else.

: Perhaps more importantly, is there a dev community for devd/devctl,
: so I might stop pestering you personally? :-)

mobile@ might be a good place.

Warner