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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!uwm.edu!rpi!usc!sdd.hp.com!mips!apple!constellation!servalan!rmtodd From: rmtodd@servalan.servalan.com (Richard Todd) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: 4.4BSD-alpha CDROM Message-ID: <1992Jul10.024627.9909@servalan.servalan.com> Date: 10 Jul 92 02:46:27 GMT Article-I.D.: servalan.1992Jul10.024627.9909 References: <2278@nic.cerf.net> <1992Jul9.140537.2208@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg> Organization: Ministry of Silly Walks Lines: 45 eoahmad@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg (Othman Ahmad) writes: >In article <2278@nic.cerf.net> richter@nic.cerf.net (Adam J. Richter) writes: >: sell a 4.4-alpha CDROM and give CSRG 60% of the sales revenue from >: this CDROM until November 1st. At $100 each, this CDROM will allow >Excellent idea. Agreed. If this thing comes out, *I'm* definitely gonna buy one. >: At the moment, I plan to make the CDROM simply contain >: the compressed tar file of the distribution and a README file. >Why compressed? Isn't 500Mbyte large enough? I'd think so. If you >: If there is enough interest I could make an unpacked directory >: tree that was compliant with ISO9660 level 2 for non-DOS >: machines, but I'd still have to change some of the file names to >: make them legal for ISO9660. >Isn't it easier to just use BSD fs? ISO9960 is not widely available yet, >is it? I suspect ISO9960 is more widely available than you think, and certainly more widely available than machines that can read "BSD fs". For one thing, the filesystem format is scheduled to change in 4.4, so if the CD is in the new format, only BSD4.4 machines will be able to read the CD :-). Even assuming you mean the BSD FFS format, there still are problems with portability. Just ask the people in comp.unix.ultrix who were complaining that DECStations can't read CD-ROMs created for Suns, even though both Ultrix and SunOS use the FFS. (The problem? Even though the FFS layout is the same, they differ in the disklabel/partition-table header format; also, all those numbers in the inode tables are in host byte order, and DECStations and Suns are of opposite endianness). Remember, a lot of people are probably going to be wanting this who don't currently have BSD. (Me, for one.) Oh, one more point re: ISO9960 availability. The standard MS-DOS software for reading CD-ROMs (MSCDEX, or something like that), handles ISO9960 filesystems. You can't *get* much more available than something that can be read on a PeeCee. :-). -- Richard Todd rmtodd@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu rmtodd@chinet.chi.il.us rmtodd@servalan.uucp New Improved Domain: rmtodd@servalan.servalan.com "Elvis has left Bettendorf!"