From owner-freebsd-current Wed Jun 24 00:20:35 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id AAA22299 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Wed, 24 Jun 1998 00:20:35 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from vampire.sung.org (ip-69-133.obt.primenet.com [207.218.69.133]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id AAA21921; Wed, 24 Jun 1998 00:18:40 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from cwsung@Sung.org) Received: from win95.Sung.org (win95.sung.org [90.0.0.1]) by vampire.sung.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with SMTP id AAA27134; Wed, 24 Jun 1998 00:17:56 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from cwsung@Sung.org) Message-Id: <199806240717.AAA27134@vampire.sung.org> X-Sender: root@90.0.0.2 X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0 Date: Wed, 24 Jun 1998 00:17:49 -0700 To: shimon@simon-shapiro.org, Peter Wemm From: Christian Sung Subject: Re: Heads up: block devices to disappear! Cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG, Poul-Henning Kamp , Chuck Robey In-Reply-To: References: <199806232113.FAA08470@spinner.netplex.com.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG I **strongly** agree. I don't see a significant gain in removing block devices, yet it somehow seems that on the other hand we'd lose some degree of functionality in doing so. -christian At 12:27 AM 6/24/98 -0400, Simon Shapiro wrote: > >On 23-Jun-98 Peter Wemm wrote: > >... some excellent explanations deleted ... > >I still fail to see why these have to be removed, changed or modified in >any way. The savings in kernel size are minimal. The block device being a >``subset'' of the char device is one view. Another view is that the >character device is an extention to the block device. > >They are fundamentally different creatures. > >While I have rarely used the block device for anything but mounting >filesystems, I have used them more than once, when needing to do high speed >I/O to a partition, while still wanting the kernel to buffer the I/O, as >in userspace filesystems, storage managers for databases, and toehr such >creatures. > >I'd suggest we leave these alone. They hurt no one and come handly at >times. The contortions needed to implement block devices on top of >character devices without having block devices are hardly worth the fuss. > >Simon > > >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message > Christian W. Sung E-Mail: cwsung@Sung.org IS Management Consultant Website: www.Sung.org Senior UNIX Consultant Telephone (800) COM-UNIX "And the UNIX Guru typed 'rm -rf /*', and all that was before, including the Guru himself, became then null and void, and darkness came down upon the system and those who worshiped it in a rather ruthless way." -- C.W. Sung ================================================== PGP Key Fingerprint: F6E2 0372 F765 28B6 6D34 7DF4 A928 A7AF 59A0 04CD ================================================== To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message