pezely@cis.udel.edu (Daniel Pezely) (10/11/90)
>First of all, BSD and SunOS are the same animals with respect to file system >structure. All SunOS is basically is BSD Unix 4.3 with some of Sun's code >added. You mentioned a BSD book later on. I think I know which one, and it's very much worth reading. _Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD Unix Operating System_ (Addison-Wesley, 1989) > The Minix file system was >designed to get the point across about general Unix file system structure with >the common denominators being the superblock, free list, and inode table. Since Minix is meant to be a learning tool, how about if the high-performance OS courses got involved too? There's lots and lots of grad students around these days... I'm not a grad student, but I'm willing to learn more about such things. Even implementing a BSD file system with multiple threads will be worth it even if we forget about the idea of physically moving drives around. You mentioned implementing NFS. Is anyone working on this? My machine is not on a network, so it wont do much for me yet. Anyone else have some free time? :-) I see your point for using a tape drive rather than lugging disk drives around, but for those on a very tight budget... never mind. (yes, I know that tape drive prices are falling.) > Where do you draw the line? Where will Minix stop? >Or do you want to make a universal file system read utility that will decipher >the file system you have on a given disk and allow you to read any given file >system from a floppy? See my point? Why stop? GNU's freeware OS isn't anywhere to be seen, and the price of Minix makes it cheap enough that it is accessible to the masses. I think that once the 386 protected mode version of the kernel was announced, that may have attracted more people to using Minix rather than something else. Even if there are problems with the 386 version, those bugs will be worked out soon enough. -cowboy dan -- R+D Cowboys: HITL, Seattle CSL, U Delaware Pezely@hitl.VRnet.washington.edu Pezely@udel.edu
jca@pnet01.cts.com (John C. Archambeau) (10/13/90)
pezely@cis.udel.edu (Daniel Pezely) writes: >>First of all, BSD and SunOS are the same animals with respect to file system >>structure. All SunOS is basically is BSD Unix 4.3 with some of Sun's code >>added. > >You mentioned a BSD book later on. I think I know which one, and it's >very much worth reading. > _Design and Implementation of the 4.3BSD Unix Operating System_ > (Addison-Wesley, 1989) That's the book alright. It is well put together. >> The Minix file system was >>designed to get the point across about general Unix file system structure with >>the common denominators being the superblock, free list, and inode table. > >Since Minix is meant to be a learning tool, how about if the >high-performance OS courses got involved too? There's lots and lots >of grad students around these days... I'm not a grad student, but I'm >willing to learn more about such things. > >Even implementing a BSD file system with multiple threads will be >worth it even if we forget about the idea of physically moving drives >around. > >You mentioned implementing NFS. Is anyone working on this? My >machine is not on a network, so it wont do much for me yet. Anyone >else have some free time? :-) I didn't mention it. NFS. Hmm, you'd have to first put in the TCP/IP and UDP/IP. If you run traffic from a Sun, you'll notice that there are several protocols running across the wire. What NFS exactly involves, I'm not intimately familiar with. I do know that the networking has to be added to even get to the NFS. First implement rlogin and telnet before NFS. Got to learn to walk before you can run. >I see your point for using a tape drive rather than lugging disk >drives around, but for those on a very tight budget... never mind. >(yes, I know that tape drive prices are falling.) > >> Where do you draw the line? Where will Minix stop? >>Or do you want to make a universal file system read utility that will decipher >>the file system you have on a given disk and allow you to read any given file >>system from a floppy? See my point? > >Why stop? GNU's freeware OS isn't anywhere to be seen, and the price >of Minix makes it cheap enough that it is accessible to the masses. I >think that once the 386 protected mode version of the kernel was >announced, that may have attracted more people to using Minix rather >than something else. Even if there are problems with the 386 version, >those bugs will be worked out soon enough. I started to see Andy's point about small being beautiful when I got ahold of SunOS 4.1. Starting with SunOS 4.1, you can't put the entire OS on a Quantum Quantum P-105S. It just won't fit. In fact, there's a rumor floating around that Sun is going to start shipping their SPARCstations with a 200 Mb 3.5" SCSI drive over the 105 Mb (maybe a P-210S). Gawd, I didn't think Sun could blow up that kernel anymore, but they did. The generic kernel for Sun 4C was blown up by about 200K in text. Went from the roughly 800K to about 1 Mb. A lot of stuff added. You can trim the fat and stuff you don't need on the kernel and get it down to maybe 700K. What did Sun add? A lot more System V support. AT&T's RFS is now supported in SunOS 4.1. I had to do this kernel trimming when I loaded 4.1 on an SLC. Even the bare essentials are a bit more than the 95 or so Mb that the P-105S formats down to after laying down the file systems, not to mention you have to give up about 13 Mb of swap space on one of your drives. Of course, since the price of 200 Mb 3.5" drives are falling through the floor, I suppose one could expect a larger OS, but I didn't expect such a quantum leap in the size of the OS. I don't mind a good OS that does a lot, but it wouldn't surprise me if the kernel gets to the point where it'll have a device driver for a Maytag dishwasher. :) // JCA /* **--------------------------------------------------------------------------* ** Flames : /dev/null | Small memory model only for ** ARPANET : crash!pnet01!jca@nosc.mil | Unix? Get the (*bleep*) out ** INTERNET: jca@pnet01.cts.com | of here! ** UUCP : {nosc ucsd hplabs!hd-sdd}!crash!pnet01!jca **--------------------------------------------------------------------------* */