warlock@ecst.csuchico.edu (John Kennedy) (01/24/91)
In article <1991Jan16.201910.8646@Think.COM> Barry Margolin writes: >In article <1991Jan15.204849@IASTATE.EDU> Begley Michael L writes: >> uncompress -c microemacs|execute /* uncompress microemacs.Z */ >> /* into a stream, and execute */ > >>I've been told that it can't be done because of swapping... >>Can anyone help? > [...] > >Swapping isn't a problem; the process will simply page out of the swap >area, rather than directly from the executable (since there isn't an >executable). But swapping WOULD be a problem if the compressed file was set up for being demand pagable. (-: Hey! What's zcat doing in the kernal!! If you hacked it out, some possibilities would need elimination. What about a device driver (or hardware interface card) that compressed the data as it was read off the disk? Doubtless, another very nasty can of worms. I'm not loosing sleep over it. (-:{ -- Warlock, AKA +---------------------------------------------------- John Kennedy | internet: warlock@ecst.csuchico.edu CSU Chico +----------------------------------------------------