From owner-freebsd-questions Thu Nov 18 19:16:10 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from bigphred.greycat.com (bigphred.greycat.com [207.173.133.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 47F51155B6 for ; Thu, 18 Nov 1999 19:16:07 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dann@bigphred.greycat.com) Received: (from dann@localhost) by bigphred.greycat.com (8.9.3/8.9.3) id TAA11154; Thu, 18 Nov 1999 19:16:24 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dann) Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1999 19:16:24 -0800 From: Dann Lunsford To: Richard Tobin Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: "whiteouts" in rm manpage Message-ID: <19991118191624.B11031@greycat.com> References: <199911181650.QAA27745@rhymer.cogsci.ed.ac.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 1.0pre2i In-Reply-To: <199911181650.QAA27745@rhymer.cogsci.ed.ac.uk> Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Thu, Nov 18, 1999 at 04:50:54PM +0000, Richard Tobin wrote: > > WHITEOUTS??? What is this? > > IIRC, whiteouts are (would be?) used for the union filesystem (similar > to Sun's "translucent" filesystem). The union filesystem allows one > filesystem to be mounted "over" another, where you see files in both > filesystems with those in the "upper" filesystem overriding those in > the (typically read-only) "lower". A whiteout in the upper filesystem > hides one in the lower, allowing you to delete files from the union. > Undeleting such a whited-out file would just be a question of removing > the whiteout to expose the original again. Hmmm. Sounds a little like CMS mini-disks. You can specify a search order that does the same sort of thing. So, what would you do to "white out" a file ? Create an empty file with the same name? Or is there some special attribute you give files on a union fs? Guess it's hit-the-code time. Thanks! -- Dann Lunsford The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil dann@greycat.com is that men of good will do nothing. -- Cicero To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message