[Pcsclite-muscle] index in PC/SC lite reader names may change

[Stephan Brunner]

On Mon, May 11, 2026 at 04:14:44PM +0200, Ludovic Rousseau wrote:
> Hello,
Hello,

> My proposal is to name the reader "reader A 02 00" instead (or
> whatever the next available number is).
> After 99 readers have been plugged in, we go back to number 00 (if available).

In case my chinesium reader malfunctions, the first thing to try is to
unplug and re-plug it.
If I understand your proposal correctly, if before the unplug the reader
was called "00", it will now be called "01".

> The number in the reader name should NOT be interpreted by the
> application. Therefore, the proposed change should not break existing
> code.

Many software will make the name of the reader used configurable of some
sort. The number itself may not be parsed by the application, but the reader
name itself may be some kind of configuration option.

So, as soon as I replug a reader, I suddenly have to change the
configuration to make it work again, because the reader name now
suddenly changed. And if I reboot my box, reader 01 will now become
reader 00 again.

> However, I know that developers can be very creative when using APIs
> and undocumented behaviours :-)

Not developers, but application users :)

Especially applications where the user is more or less
confined to "power off and power on" again to troubleshoot and no
configuration possibility, this change could cause some trouble. A
simple "replug it" will become a "reboot that old
Point-Of-Sales-Box-And-Wait-Five-Minutes" journey.

-- 
Stephan