From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Aug 18 01:44:24 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B774C16A417 for ; Sat, 18 Aug 2007 01:44:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fatman@crackmonkey.us) Received: from crackmonkey.us (crackmonkey.us [70.58.166.197]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8C63E13C481 for ; Sat, 18 Aug 2007 01:44:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from fatman@crackmonkey.us) Received: from monju-bosatsu.dreamtrack.dnsalias.com (cpc1-swin7-0-0-cust216.brhm.cable.ntl.com [::ffff:86.18.88.217]) (AUTH: PLAIN fatman, TLS: TLSv1/SSLv3,256bits,AES256-SHA) by crackmonkey.us with esmtp; Fri, 17 Aug 2007 19:47:15 -0600 id 0004C615.46C64FA9.00002C52 Message-ID: <46C64ED6.2000304@crackmonkey.us> Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 02:43:50 +0100 From: Adam J Richardson User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.0 (X11/20070421) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Andrew Falanga References: <340a29540708161313y139d51c3o2f9eb3303c4e47dd@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <340a29540708161313y139d51c3o2f9eb3303c4e47dd@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: User Questions Subject: Re: The Elephant file system X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 01:44:24 -0000 Andrew Falanga wrote: > Hi, > > I was doing some research for file systems at work and came across > some semi-technical papers on a file system called elephant. Since > this paper mentions that the designers first tried their > implementation on FreeBSD 2.2.7, I thought I'd ask here if anyone has > ever heard of this file system. If so, is this something that is > available in FreeBSD or is this just an interesting academic exercise? > If this isn't is use, why? Also, if not in use, is there another > file system (by another name) that does something similar? This file > system sounds like a great idea. > > A link to get the paper I mentioned is here: > > http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Alistair_Veitch/papers/elephant-hotos/index.html > > Andy Hi Andy, I only read the abstract but this sounds like what Google do with Gmail. Perhaps this paper is where they got the idea for it. [Did Gmail start before or after 2001? I have no idea.] Sounds like a neat idea, as long as it doesn't become the main file system, because it definitely isn't for me. I have small hard drives and no money. Disk space is definitely a scarce resource for me. Sigh. Adam J Richardson