From: davidsen@ariel.crd.GE.COM (william E Davidsen) Subject: Re: mrphmpmmmph shoelace and partitions Date: 24 Jul 1992 14:35:47 GMT
In article <1992Jul24.021543.24526@sol.UVic.CA>, pmacdona@sanjuan (Peter MacDonald) writes:
| One solution is to implement quotas, but I think Linus may
| have said nay to that already. Another would be to
| allow mounting of files as file systems? Comments? Catcalls?
Well, I like the basic idea, because it solves a bunch of problems.
But it needs a bit of support before it really works; namely support in
fsck and mkfs to support it. And dynamic allocation of mount points if
you envision using this for individual users.
I *think* mtools will handle DOS FS in a file, and this would be a
natural extension. It would also allow reading a raw disk image of a
floppy f/s into a file, mounting it, running with it on a fast device,
then unmounting it and copying back to the floppy. You can even keep it
in ramdisk, notably faster than the floppy ;-)
In mail to the poster who mentioned a xenix fs, I noted that a xenix
f/s floppy can be mounted on xenix, V.3 and V.4, making it useful for
data exchange when you are trying to maintain software on multiple
platforms. And supposedly Solaris 2.0 will add support on both i386 and
SPARC platforms (unless they rip it back out, which is unlikely).
Like DOS format, xenix is a useful f/s type for portability, if not
for day to day use.
--
bill davidsen, GE Corp. R&D Center; Box 8; Schenectady NY 12345
It never ceases to amaze me that otherwise rational people, able to
understand calculus, compound interest, and the income tax form, can
continue to believe that poker is a game of chance.