[Info-vax] Reloading device drivers on x86-64 VMS

[Paul Sture]

On 2015-03-07, Simon Clubley
<clubley at remove_me.eisner.decus.org-Earth.UFP> wrote:
> I don't know if you can unload and reload device drivers on IA-64
> (I've stopped at Alpha so far) or if the ability was added to Alpha
> in the last few years (I haven't done any VMS kernel mode work for
> many years) but if you can't, would it be possible to have device
> drivers for x86-64 VMS which can be unloaded and then a new version
> reloaded ?
>
> One thing which became very clear very quickly to me was just how much
> easier it is to develop device drivers on Linux where you can do
> exactly this.

This is a feature that RT-11 (and RSX?) had and I missed it in VMS.

> I know it's not exactly a major feature for the majority of users
> but if it's easy enough to add support for this it would be worthwhile
> as it also has production implications in being able to load some
> updated drivers without rebooting.

Yes, it is very useful for that.

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