tcb (02/23/83)
The so-called (rotaional) gap size argument specifices how many sectors to skip over before creating the next logical sector in a file and has to do with latency and the normal buffering mechanism(s) of the os. It is intended to optimize the time it takes to read (and theoretically) write a file, and has been employed by numerous operating systems over the years. For Unix, however, it is really only effective for portions of file systems like /bin or /usr/bin that get hit a lot, but don't change much, since once you start modifying files, the file system's linked list method of allocating free blocks (sectors) tends to randomize the physical locations of logically contiguous blocks of a file. Tom (wb2!tcb)