Edward Bartolo <edbarx@???> wrote:

> Therefore, if I were in a position to take decisions I would
> not expect a computer to know what I need. However, a computer should
> have no difficulty processing data. A decent OS should save a map of
> how hardware is connected, somewhat like a hardware tree with all
> points fully defined. That way, if on a future boot, nodeX is not
> found or is replaced with some other hardware, nodeZ, that we assume
> existed before, will continue to be assigned with the same device
> name.

Dunno, there's lots of "what if ?" opportunities there.

What if ... a NIC is seen to appear in a different position in the bus/device tree ?
Should it be assumed to be the same device (eg USB NIC plugged into different port) and given the same name ? Should it be given a different name as a different device ?

What if that device moves (and you think the answer above should be, "it's obviously the same device - give it the same name") and a different (new) device appears in the old location ? Has the user just upgraded their primary NIC (eg got a gigabit dongle instead of a 100M dongle) and wants to use the old slower one as a secondary NIC - or have they moved an existing device (expecting it to keep the same settings) in order to install* an additional device for something new ?

Absent the mind reading module which we haven't invented yet - there is no way of knowing and so whichever way we decide to code it will be wrong for some instances.

However, for a lot of cases - the existing udev persistent rules method "does just what people want".

* Sometimes, I've had to move a USB device in order to be able to install another device - some devices are oversize and block adjacent ports so physical location matters.