Instance Numbers

In the SunOS 4.1 system, drivers counted the number of devices that they found, and assigned a unit number to each (in the range 0 to the number of units found less one). Now, these unit numbers are called instance numbers, and the system assigns the numbers to devices.

Instances can be thought of as a shorthand name for a particular instance of a device (foo0 could name instance 0 of device foo). The system assigns and retrieves the instance numbers, even after any number of reboots. This is because at open(2) time all the system has is a dev_t. To determine which device is needed (as it may need to be attached), the system needs to get the instance number (which the driver retrieves from the minor number).

The mapping between instance numbers and minor numbers (see getinfo(9E)) should be static. The driver should not require any state information to do the translation, since that information might not be available (the device might not be attached).