On Tue, Jun 23, 2020, 4:25 PM Dave Horsfall <dave@horsfall.org> wrote:

> On Tue, 23 Jun 2020, Norman Wilson wrote:
>
> > The only file-system switch I know well is that in the later Research
> > systems.  It has nothing to do with disks or blocks. It is about names
> > and inodes: turn name to struct inode, read arbitrary chunk of data,
> > write arbitrary chunk of data, create file, unlink file, abominable
> > ill-defined system call that just wouldn't die erm I mean ioctl, and so
> > on.
>
> Ioctl: the Swiss Army knife of system calls.  I thought it was a neat idea
> when it arrived (much better then those primitive stty/gtty calls) but
> now...
>

More like the swiss army chainsaw with engine trouble and a dull blade....

Warner


-- Dave
>