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Date: Wed, 27 Sep 1995 11:30:16 -0600
From: Nate Williams <nate@rocky.sri.MT.net>
Message-Id: <199509271730.LAA17738@rocky.sri.MT.net>
To: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
Cc: nate@rocky.sri.MT.net, hackers@FreeBSD.org
Subject: Re: Diskslice naming convention?
In-Reply-To: <199509271717.DAA32286@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
References: <199509271717.DAA32286@godzilla.zeta.org.au>
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> >I'm still lost.  I *understand* that /dev/rsd0c and /dev/sd0 are
> >different (one's a block device, the other is a character device), but
> >how *are* they different in what parts of the disk they represent?
> 
> /dev/rsd0c is the character device for the c partition on the first slice
> on sd0 with type 0xa5 (aka the compatibility slice).  /dev/sd0 is the
> block device for the whole disk.

This makes sense.

So why does 'disklabel automatically translated /dev/sd0 -> /dev/rsd0c'
occur?

[ Display slices and types of a disk ]

> There's the fdisk inside sysinstall and in libdisk/tst01.  It recognizes
> extended partitions but can't create them.

But no standalone utilities (yet).  I think I'm beginning to understand
this much better now.  However, I still a bit confuseds re: the
disklabel translation stuff and the 'compatability' slices.

Thanks a bunch,


Nate