Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 08:56:46 +0200 From: "Ulrich Spoerlein" <uspoerlein@gmail.com> To: "Tim Kientzle" <kientzle@freebsd.org> Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Tar output mode for installworld Message-ID: <7ad7ddd90707152356v6034352uf1f7a42ddb9c1166@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <469A8F91.7090509@freebsd.org> References: <46992FFF.7010906@kientzle.com> <20070714223853.GF16579@britannica.bec.de> <469992CA.6000104@freebsd.org> <4699BE75.2090808@freebsd.org> <20070715184703.GK2819@roadrunner.q.local> <469A8F91.7090509@freebsd.org>
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On 7/15/07, Tim Kientzle <kientzle@freebsd.org> wrote: > Ulrich Spoerlein wrote: > > Simple and elegant. It would also do away with those base.aa, base.ab, > > etc. madness. > > I'm confused. base.aa, etc, are a tar file, so I don't > entirely understand how this would be different? The > current installer does the equivalent of > cat base.* | tar -xf - > > I can see one advantage and one disadvantage of installing > a specification file (which references other files) instead: > > Plus: The specification file can re-use the existing > files on CD, so you don't have, e.g., one copy of /bin/sh > on the live CD and another buried in base.tgz. This > could save space. That is exactly what I was referring to above. And AFAIK DragonflyBSD does it in a similar way. They simply copy the live CD onto the HDD. > Minus: Installing a specification file this way would > be slower because you then have to read a lot of small > files off of CD. True, but couldn't we optimize the ISO layout so it will be a near sequential read of the CD? This should be done for every live CD anyway to avoid excessive seeks during boot up. Uli
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