Bigger process IDs and "dev_t"s (was: Re: RISC v. CISC...)

[Guy Harris]

>>The /dev file must live on the server, so it's a BIG convenience if
>>the major number is uniform across all Suns.  
>
>correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't the <major, minor> manufactured
>by the client?  <255, index-in-mnttab>?

The "st_dev" is manufactured by the client, in the fashion you indicate
(more-or-less - I think it may be different in 4.0 so that multiple
distributed file systems can be supported); however, the "st_rdev",
which is what we're talking about, isn't manufactured by the client -
major/minors for special files living on a server are interpreted in the
same way as if they were local to the client (literally - the "specfs"
code handles special files, regardless of whether the special file is
gotten locally or over NFS).