ncd@nzfish.UUCP (02/17/87)
Wanted: filesystem emulator, part tape - part disk. Can such a thing run under vanilla Unix? What we believe we want is to have an extra file system. For example mounted as /arc. This extra filesystem would use physical space both on disk and on tape. Natually it would be nice if the data stored on disk was the most reasontly accessed, while the data stored on tape less often used, so a degree of smartness would be nice. There are a host of things that such a device handler "could" do, but basically making disk a 'buffer' between machine and tape would be enough, whether it buffered at block level or file level may not be all that important. We are running OSx (ucb & att) on a Pyramid computer, we do not have a source license for the obvious reasons. We have a large base of users who in turn seem to have an infinite capacity for consuming disk space, we also have a large database, part of which may not be used for extended periods, but never the less these parts remain ever important for research. Thus the need for this disk/tape hybrid. Thank you in advance Neville address: ubc_vision!calgary!vuwcomp!nzfish!ncd
wyatt@cfa.UUCP (02/20/87)
> Wanted: filesystem emulator, part tape - part disk. > > Can such a thing run under vanilla Unix? What we > believe we want is to have an extra file system. For > example mounted as /arc. This extra filesystem would > use physical space both on disk and on tape. [...] > There are a host of things that such a device handler > "could" do, but basically making disk a 'buffer' between > machine and tape would be enough, whether it buffered > at block level or file level may not be all that important. This kind of thing is done (only under VMS, so far as I know) by various vendors' packages to run optical disks. I, for one, would love to see something similar for UNIX, but apparently standards are a huge problem still (both in the physical disk standards and in file system organization). If anyone has/is writing such an interface, let us know!! -- Bill UUCP: {seismo|ihnp4}!harvard!talcott!cfa!wyatt Wyatt ARPA: wyatt@cfa.harvard.edu (or) wyatt%cfa.UUCP@harvard.harvard.edu BITNET: wyatt@cfa2