file: module and character special files

[Erik Stenman]

Richard A. O'Keefe wrote:
[...]
> Eshell V5.3  (abort with ^G)
> 1> file:open('/dev/null', [read]).
[...]
> Poking around a bit more, I find that opening _any_ character 
> special file seems to be forbidden.
> I don't mind not being able to seek on these things, but 
> surely I don't have to be able to seek in order to just plain 
> read and write?

This problem has come up before on the mailing list see:
http://www.erlang.org/ml-archive/erlang-questions/200003/msg00018.html 

That post ends with:
  "Maybe an alternative "any-type-of-file-driver" which uses
   threads/separate processes would be nice though."

Maybe we can get OTP to implement this if there are enough requests
for a feature like that on the list, or maybe someone already has 
such a driver somewhere that could be contributed to the community?


Erik