From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jul 16 06:56:48 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: hackers@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A58B316A402 for ; Mon, 16 Jul 2007 06:56:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from uspoerlein@gmail.com) Received: from ug-out-1314.google.com (ug-out-1314.google.com [66.249.92.170]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3B31513C4BB for ; Mon, 16 Jul 2007 06:56:48 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from uspoerlein@gmail.com) Received: by ug-out-1314.google.com with SMTP id o4so1025238uge for ; Sun, 15 Jul 2007 23:56:46 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=Uz/HWxwO6HFBDegfwdQsyxzBPHuVXwRCdoX1yIXkKHaWH8R+KCzfOK25jjFMOiv98DhizZ1J6i7zR6kKJgbPMafv5wOocmIL91wXGtq2o8405hQZeScttpKH7/NabEdLbs4um0Q9qAAC/2VAgzkQaLT5xEUH5rhSHtN93LAk70A= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=dwt/+BUpINKGni1/h2WHw7RD3ALYkURxPU9B20qHdSGL9H6Kmq8khDUmri3pmfTwl13Wv8rXv7ELcTph1P2fCyKSpars5ibC8Nka6I/b6HFtB4kLlEfqB43WpSUlgoDQEgPZjwcksK516/s/HeKsiKOg4lp5VcjEzIP2NCBfExA= Received: by 10.78.206.9 with SMTP id d9mr1101934hug.1184569006679; Sun, 15 Jul 2007 23:56:46 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.78.171.6 with HTTP; Sun, 15 Jul 2007 23:56:46 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <7ad7ddd90707152356v6034352uf1f7a42ddb9c1166@mail.gmail.com> Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 08:56:46 +0200 From: "Ulrich Spoerlein" To: "Tim Kientzle" In-Reply-To: <469A8F91.7090509@freebsd.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline 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> Cc: hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Tar output mode for installworld X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 06:56:48 -0000 On 7/15/07, Tim Kientzle 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