Hi Folks,

Does anyone have details on when and why the Fedora team usurped the /dev/tape symbolic link standard and created the /dev/tape/ folder hierarchy?

When using tools like mt, the default device entry of /dev/tape is now causing problems because the device is now a directory. Previously, /dev/tape was a symlink to the default, non-rewinding tape device (i.e.: /dev/nst0).

Tim

I'm not familiar with Fedora but I think I know the answer. This probably happened as a consequence of changing from the static device management to the udev dynamic device management system. The computer cannot know all of the devices that will be dynamically attached during the current incarnation of the operating system. The old system handled this by creating what was thought to be more device nodes than would probably be required. The udev device management system creates device nodes as devices show up so you don't have as many device nodes created just in case a device shows up.

If you look in the /dev directory you will still see a lot of device nodes created before they are needed. I think that these, such as /dev/loopX, are not yet managed by udev. I'm just guessing here.