From owner-freebsd-newbies Wed Oct 21 08:50:13 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id IAA02894 for freebsd-newbies-outgoing; Wed, 21 Oct 1998 08:50:13 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from pau-amma.whistle.com (s205m64.whistle.com [207.76.205.64]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id IAA02872 for ; Wed, 21 Oct 1998 08:50:09 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dhw@whistle.com) Received: (from dhw@localhost) by pau-amma.whistle.com (8.8.8/8.8.7) id IAA03947; Wed, 21 Oct 1998 08:48:56 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dhw) Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 08:48:56 -0700 (PDT) From: David Wolfskill Message-Id: <199810211548.IAA03947@pau-amma.whistle.com> To: freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG, thiel@genevaonline.com Subject: Re: file systems In-Reply-To: <199810210624.BAA27791@battleship.genevaonline.com> Sender: owner-freebsd-newbies@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org >Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 01:22:25 -0500 >From: Loren Thiel >Hi, I was wondering where I could find documentation on how the FreeBSD >file system works. Well, first, you might check the archives of freebsd-questions. Also, I recommend McKusick, Bostic, Karels, and Quarterman, _The Design and Implementation of the 4.4BSD Operating System_ (Addison-Wesley, 1996); ISBN 0-201-54979-4. Also, and this may be rather a subtlety, UNIX generally supports several different kinds of filesystems. The above-referenced book discusses filesystems generally in chaprt 7; the Berkeley FFS ("Fast Filesystem") in chapter 8, and NFS ("Network Filesystem") in chapter 9. As a historical note, the original system that Ken Thompson wrote, and which, after time, acquired the name "UNIX" (credit/blame for which is vested with Brian Kernighan by Dennis Ritchie), was apparently little more than a file system and a scheduler: Besides the financial agitations that took place in 1969, there was technical work also. Thompson, R. H. Canaday, and Ritchie developed, on blackboards and scribbled notes, the basic design of a file system that was later to become the heart of UNIX. ... Space Travel, though it made a very attractive game, served mainly as an introduction to the clumsy technology of preparing programs for the PDP-7. Soon Thompson began implementing a paper file system (perhaps 'chalk file system' would be more accurate) that had been designed earlier. A file system without a way to exercise it is a sterile proposition, so he proceeded to flesh it out with the other requirements for a working operating system, in particular the notion of processes. Then came a small set of user-level utilities: the means to copy, print, delete, and edit files, and of course a simple command interpreter (shell). Up to this time all the programs were written using GECOS and files were transferred to the PDP-7 on paper tape; but once an assembler was completed the system was able to support itself. Although it was not until well into 1970 that Brian Kernighan suggested the name 'UNIX,' in a somewhat treacherous pun on 'MULTICS,' the operating system we know today was born. -- D. M. Ritchie, "The Evolution of the UNIX Time-Sharing System" (from AT&T Bell Laboratories Technical Journal, Vol. 63, No. 8, October, 1984) [I wouldn't normally do this, but it occurred to me that many "newbies" might find it of interest.] david -- David Wolfskill UNIX System Administrator dhw@whistle.com voice: (650) 577-7158 pager: (650) 371-4621 To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-newbies" in the body of the message