deletion of /dev files

[Derek Broughton]

R Kimber wrote:

> On Thu, 12 Jan 2006 17:25:31 -0500
> Phillip Susi <psusi at cfl.rr.com> wrote:
> 
>> The devices are created when the actual hardware is detected, and
>> removed when the actual hardware is.  It wouldn't do any good to keep
>> around broken dev nodes for hardware that you have unplugged.
>> 
>> What specific devices are your scripts complaining about?
> 
> I haven't unplugged any hardware.
> 
> The problem is with a USB Zip drive.  If I unmount the drive to change
> a disk, the device disappears.

That's not normal behaviour.  In KDE it might disappear from the desktop -
depending on my desktop settings - but the dev node doesn't disappear until
I actually remove the drive.

> I don't seem to be able to change disks 
> without unmounting them. The eject button doesn't respond.

unmounting guarantees that data is written.  eject doesn't.  So most usb
devices don't allow ejecting until it's unmounted.
 
> The next time the drive is mounted it is given a different device and
> the script then gives an error to the effect that there is a conflict
> with fstab.

Well, you probably don't want it to be in fstab, anyway.
-- 
derek