sync deamons

[Bart Schuller <schuller@dutiea.twi.tudelft.nl>]

On the subject of minixfs needing a sync deamon:

I asked just about the same question a couple of months ago on this list,
and at that time a seperate process looked like the best idea. I have been
hacking on a compressing filesystem, based on the Linux ext2fs.
I added a Dcntl() sync function, and made an update process which gets
started in mint.cnf. The problem with this is that Dcntl needs a path to
my filesystem (I suppose I could just try every fixed disk and see if it
contains my fs). I haven't seen any problems with this, but it fails if
MiNT panics or exits.

Of course a Sync() system call would be better.
This brings up another point: In my fs I allocate 256K buffers, although
most work on my system gets done on minixfs and TOS partitions. A real
UNIX has just one buffer cache shared by all filesystems. If a single
buffer cache gets introduced it could also open the door to multi-threaded
filesystems (if a new hd-driver concept comes with it).

If only I had an interrupt-driven harddisk driver... I could port almost
every Linux filesystem available with relative ease.

Enough for now,

Bart.
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Bart Schuller    (NeXTmail OK) | What is a 're-mix?' "A total cheat"...
schuller@dutiea.twi.tudelft.nl | ..."A gift"-- when it's Frankie...         TCH
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