From owner-freebsd-hackers  Thu Jan 18 01:28:52 1996
Return-Path: owner-hackers
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id BAA14382
          for hackers-outgoing; Thu, 18 Jan 1996 01:28:52 -0800 (PST)
Received: from godzilla.zeta.org.au (godzilla.zeta.org.au [203.2.228.19])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id BAA13839
          for <hackers@FreeBSD.org>; Thu, 18 Jan 1996 01:26:35 -0800 (PST)
Received: (from bde@localhost) by godzilla.zeta.org.au (8.6.9/8.6.9) id UAA05818; Thu, 18 Jan 1996 20:23:02 +1100
Date: Thu, 18 Jan 1996 20:23:02 +1100
From: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Message-Id: <199601180923.UAA05818@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
To: jerry@border.com, leisner@sdsp.mc.xerox.com
Subject: Re: SYSQUEST disks...
Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.org
Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk

>On Linux, I simply can read the device, and do a mke2fs..

>On Sun, I can only format but I don't know the paramters to pass
>to format...

>On FreeBSD, I think the autodetection works, but I can't treat it as
>a device...(I'm not sure...I couldn't get anything working...)

You have to install a label in FreeBSD.

newfs has too many (in)convenient defaults that stop it from working
in plain files and devices:

$ cd /tmp
$ dd if=/dev/zero if=/z bs=8k count=256
$ newfs /z
newfs: /dev/z: No such file or directory
$ newfs /tmp/z
newfs: /tmp/z: can't figure out file system partition
$ mv z za
$ newfs /tmp/za
newfs: /tmp/za: can't read disk label; disk type must be specified
$ newfs /tmp/za floppy    # a convenient, not quite correct label
newfs: /tmp/za: not a character special device
Warning: 1216 sector(s) in last sector unallocated
[... otherwise works OK]
$ newfs -u 0 -t 0 /tmp/za floppy
[... works OK]

df has too many (in)convenient defaults that stop it from working
on plain files and devices:

$ df /tmp/a
[... unwanted output for the device that /tmp/za is on]

fsck has too many (in)convenient defaults that stop it from working
on plain files and devices:

$ fsck /tmp/za
Can't make sense out of name /tmp/za
Can't stat (null): Bad address

These problems can be avoided for regular files by using the vn driver.
The vn driver doesn't seem to work for stacking devices.

Bruce