Re: [9fans] long long whining

Re: [9fans] long long whining

[forsyth]

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that's not what i meant.  given the existence of the vnode switch, and the
primitives contained therein, there is no big obstacle to writing a vfs/vnode implementation
that converts the operations within its scope into messages on a file
descriptor in much the same way as network file systems were implemented
by 8th edition, or by me in my re-ported Unix kernels for the VAX and Sun-3,
using a simpler file system switch.    do just one of those and you can have as many
things as you like outside the kernel. 

having said that, it's hard to know quite where to start with some of these
new improved switches.  whew!   just look at the size of that one...


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To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: Re: [9fans] long long whining
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 16:21:49 GMT
Message-ID: <874rj43aiq.fsf@becket.becket.net>

forsyth@caldo.demon.co.uk writes:

> you could use their vnode switch--possibly called something else but
> i haven't got the old documentation here--to convert file system
> operations to messages in much the same way as the 8th edition file
> system switch, although the latter was simpler.  (the RFS changes
> were something else again.)  NFS wasn't completely useful because
> the close wasn't transmitted.

BSD doesn't *have* messages.  Eventualy, you end up implementing Mach
2 when you add them.

The vnode switch is purely *internal* to the kernel, which is the
point of that paragraph.

Thomas

[9fans] Linus on design, Plan9 etc

[Andrew Simmons]

I stumbled across this the other day, and thought it might be of interest
here:

http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0112.0/0004.html

Re: [9fans] long long whining

[Thomas Bushnell, BSG]

forsyth@caldo.demon.co.uk writes:

> that's not what i meant.  given the existence of the vnode switch,
> and the primitives contained therein, there is no big obstacle to
> writing a vfs/vnode implementation that converts the operations
> within its scope into messages on a file descriptor in much the same
> way as network file systems were implemented by 8th edition, or by
> me in my re-ported Unix kernels for the VAX and Sun-3, using a
> simpler file system switch.  do just one of those and you can have
> as many things as you like outside the kernel.

There's already in BSD a "portal" concept, though it had not been
implemented when I wrote the essay in question.

Once you've done that, however, you are no longer a monolithic kernel,
however.  That's kinda the point of the essay.

Re: [9fans] Linus on design, Plan9 etc

[Andrew Simmons]

>there's a pleasant programme on BBC Radio Four (it used to be Radio 4
>but they've apparently had designers in) 

When I was a lad, it was called the Home Service. I hope the designers
haven't done away with "The Archers" - it's so comforting to visit England
after a gap of a couple of years and tune in to find that absolutely
nothing has happened. But I digress.

Time was when it would have seemed eccentric to refer to Algol 68 as a
"little language", but that was before the C++ standard.

Re: [9fans] Linus on design, Plan9 etc

[forsyth]

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>>I stumbled across this the other day, and thought it might be of interest
>>here:
>>http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0112.0/0004.html

there's a pleasant programme on BBC Radio Four (it used to be Radio 4
but they've apparently had designers in) in which people talk about books they've been
reading recently.  i stumbled upon the following today.  i mention it because it
contrasts in some ways with the reference above (furthermore i found some
of its observations helpful with regard to something i was doing recently).

http://plan9.bell-labs.com/who/dmr/hopl.html


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To: 9fans@cse.psu.edu
Subject: [9fans] Linus on design, Plan9 etc
Date: Tue, 26 Mar 2002 08:49:04 +1200
Message-ID: <3.0.6.32.20020326084904.00991f08@pop3.clear.net.nz>

I stumbled across this the other day, and thought it might be of interest
here:

http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0112.0/0004.html