2009/200 Solaris Simlinks

[James Carlson]

Scott Rotondo writes:
> Rishi Srivatsavai wrote:
> > I don't think it is used much elsewhere (our project gate is the 5th result
> > in Google) and I doubt it would cause much confusion given that this
> > is a testing resource. But if it does we can certainly re-visit the 
> > choice of name in future.
> 
> In that case, I think you'd be doing your future users a favor if you 
> pick a different name: emlinks, pseudolinks, simulinks, ... whatever.

I think y'all have seriously lost your sense of humor.  :-/

I happen to think simlink is a good name, as it's *clear* from the
context that this can't possibly be the same thing as "ln -s" (I can't
see how anyone could be confused), and it's both memorable and
evocative.

But, frankly, I don't think the argument is worth a tinker's (or
hacker's) damn.  If you absolutely insist that it's unacceptable with
the name chosen by the project team, then please provide one that
isn't either ungainly to use (pseudolinks) or burdened with a tin ear
(emlinks).  (Jury's out on simulinks ... it makes me think that Major
League Baseball is going to prohibit use without their express written
consent.)

Rishi Srivatsavai writes:
> > Is there any reason why it would be unsafe to have the driver for these 
> > simulated links on a production system ?
> 
> It is safe to use on production systems but we don't expect it to be
> used much on production as there are no known use cases for it yet there.

To answer that question a little more directly: the harm that they
would presently cause is confusion.  "When do I use etherstub and when
do I use simlink?"  Burying them for now solves that problem.

I think the right longer term answer may well be to remove etherstubs
and replace them with single-ended simlinks, as the latter are more
functional (e.g., you can bind a SAP on the base instance of a
simlink, but not on an etherstub).  But that's not this project.

-- 
James Carlson, Solaris Networking              <james.d.carlson at sun.com>
Sun Microsystems / 35 Network Drive        71.232W   Vox +1 781 442 2084
MS UBUR02-212 / Burlington MA 01803-2757   42.496N   Fax +1 781 442 1677