From: mbeattie@black.ox.ac.uk (Malcolm Beattie) Subject: Re: Can I make/mount a filesystem in a file? Date: 11 Nov 1992 09:29:05 GMT
In article <1992Nov10.124856.629@gdr.bath.ac.uk> maspab@gdr.bath.ac.uk (P A Broadbery) writes:
>In the referenced article, rick@ee.uwm.edu (Rick Miller, Linux Device Registrar) writes:
>>I think I remember this thread coming up before, but I don't remember if
>>it was satisfactorily answered...
>>
>>Can I create a file (maybe with "dd if=/dev/zero of=filename count=$size")
>>in which I could make a filesystem ("mkfs filename $size")
>>and then mount that filesystem?
>
>Try using the user_dd patches in the ALPHA directory on tsx-11. They
>allow you to create block devices which talk to a user level program,
>and a supplied client does just what you ask.
>
>There is also a 'ramdisk' program which is a cool way of loading HJ's
>{base,gcc,lib}disks without wasting a floppy (or uncompressing the
>image). ramdisk in quotes 'cos it spends most its time swapped out...
Aaargh. This reminds of a Sun seminar a month or two back when
a couple of Sun engineers mentioned that one of the
performance-increasing features of Solaris 2.0 was an ability
to swap out to memory instead of disk...
Oh for the days when disk was disk and memory was memory (or core, rather...)
On the other hand, I think I'll stick with Linux.
--Malcolm
>
>BTW, is anybody maintaining this program?
>
>Pete
>pab@maths.bath.ac.uk
-- Malcolm Beattie <mbeattie@black.ox.ac.uk> | I'm not a kernel hacker Oxford University Computing Services | I'm a kernel hacker's mate 13 Banbury Road, Oxford, OX2 6NN (U.K.) | And I'm only hacking kernels Tel: +44 865 273232 Fax: +44 865 273275 | 'Cos the kernel hacker's late