Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 15:36:53 +0200 (CEST) From: Salvo Bartolotta <bartequi@neomedia.it> To: Kory Hamzeh <kory@avatar.com> Cc: Brett Waldon <necro666@sbcglobal.net>, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Message-ID: <1000474613.3ba207f5d882c@webmail.neomedia.it>
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> Under FBSD, disk label maker is used to make "slices". Slices are the
> equivalent to partition under windows which map to a disk drive. However,
So far so good.
> unix does not really use the same concept of disk drive. Each partition
> (i.e. unix slice) is a individual file system or swap space that gets
^^^^^^^^^^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
^ ^
^------------------^
This connection doesn't hold.
> mounted as a directory off of the root directory.
I am afraid not. I do understand that you probably understand, but you are
saying something different.
"DOS *primary* partitions" correspond to Unix slices. Each Unix slice can
contain subdivisions called "partitions". **These partitions** can be used as
individual filesystems or swap.
Number of (Unix) partitions within one slice: up to 8. Letters (a-h) are used
to indicate these partitions. In particular, "b" indicates swap, "c" the whole
disk.
As a result, the Unix scheme is more flexible since you can specify partitions
within **each** slice. And you can have up to 4 slices per disk.
N.B. FreeBSD requires (at least) one DOS **primary** partition, ie at least
one slice. Some people wrote that they succeeded in making use of a (DOS)
extended partition, ie with some hacking. I haven't tried such an approach so
far; however, that is decidedly NOT for the faint of heart.
> For example, most systems
> have three slices: root (which gets mounted at "/"), swap, and usr which
^^^^^^
Of course, you mean partitions.
By the way, partition and slice are as it were etymologically, er, parallel.
"Partition" < Latin "partiri" (to divide); "slice" < O.F. "esclicier", of
Germanic origin, related to German "schleissen" (to slice).
<joking>Gasp. I almost core dumped while reading your post. :-)
-- Salvo
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