From owner-freebsd-current Mon Dec 14 18:52:02 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id SAA27936 for freebsd-current-outgoing; Mon, 14 Dec 1998 18:52:02 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from allegro.lemis.com (allegro.lemis.com [192.109.197.134]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id SAA27891 for ; Mon, 14 Dec 1998 18:51:58 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from grog@freebie.lemis.com) Received: from freebie.lemis.com (freebie.lemis.com [192.109.197.137]) by allegro.lemis.com (8.9.1/8.9.0) with ESMTP id NAA28124; Tue, 15 Dec 1998 13:21:48 +1030 (CST) Received: (from grog@localhost) by freebie.lemis.com (8.9.1/8.9.0) id NAA15792; Tue, 15 Dec 1998 13:21:44 +1030 (CST) Message-ID: <19981215132144.H15633@freebie.lemis.com> Date: Tue, 15 Dec 1998 13:21:44 +1030 From: Greg Lehey To: mjacob@feral.com Cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Tape Driver Changes Proposed: Tape Early Warning Behaviour References: <19981215131522.G15633@freebie.lemis.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Mailer: Mutt 0.91.1i In-Reply-To: ; from Matthew Jacob on Mon, Dec 14, 1998 at 06:49:45PM -0800 WWW-Home-Page: http://www.lemis.com/~grog Organization: LEMIS, PO Box 460, Echunga SA 5153, Australia Phone: +61-8-8388-8286 Fax: +61-8-8388-8725 Mobile: +61-41-739-7062 Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Monday, 14 December 1998 at 18:49:45 -0800, Matthew Jacob wrote: >>>> Down the road a little bit would be: >>>> >>>>>> untangling the minor device as behaviour selector so that >>>> ioctl's would not have to be used to select compression. >>> >>> This should be controversial :-). Compression is another type of >>> behaviour. >> >> Is this an argument for or against the change? >> >> I'm for the change, anyway. Currently it's not possible to tell a >> backup utility to write in compressed or uncompressed mode. If I have >> different devices, I can do this. It's been this way in ever other >> UNIX I've used. > > You *can* enable/disable compression, and we could even make the change > persistent across tape mounts, but the issue here is whether or not you > also want to go and change the N different backup utilities to use the > appropriate ioctl to select compression or not. Precisely. That would also include any tape utilities you port, and any other program you may want to use to access tape. Specifying the function in the device name seems the easiest solution to me. Greg -- See complete headers for address, home page and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message