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Path: sserve!manuel!munnari.oz.au!spool.mu.edu!agate!ames!haven.umd.edu!darwin.sura.net!convex!constellation!constellation.ecn.uoknor.edu!rmtodd From: rmtodd@constellation.ecn.uoknor.edu (Richard Michael Todd) Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd Subject: Re: 4.4BSD-alpha CDROM Message-ID: <1992Jul10.203341.28452@constellation.ecn.uoknor.edu> Date: 10 Jul 92 20:33:41 GMT Article-I.D.: constell.1992Jul10.203341.28452 References: <2278@nic.cerf.net> <1992Jul9.140537.2208@ntuix.ntu.ac.sg> <1992Jul10.024627.9909@servalan.servalan.com> <1992Jul10.154332.18687@gateway.novell.com> Sender: usenet@constellation.ecn.uoknor.edu (Nets) Organization: Engineering Computer Network, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA Lines: 71 terry@thisbe.npd.Novell.COM (Terry Lambert) writes: >This has it's portability problems, but a SunOS UFS CD would be my first choice, >given that Sun is distributing all it's software that way, and I think their >drives are more prevalent. Since it's UFS, it's also more likely to be usable >with little change under 386BSD. ISO9960 has traditionally been a PC format, and, Make that "with a lot of change" -- 386en and Suns don't agree on byte order, remember? >while we *are* using PC hardware for the most part, we generally aren't running >DOS on that PC hardware -- we're running 386BSD, for which UFS is the native FS. Ahem. You seem to be assuming that only current users of 386BSD will be wanting a copy of the 4.4-alpha distribution. I don't think so. I want a copy, and I don't own a 386 of any sort. >would be there. You'd have to find some way of getting it to a real OS. Not >only do you have the problem of buying a CD-ROM that lives on DOS, you also >have to buy networking software or guarantee Kermit will run for a **LONG** >time, and that you can copy an entire directory tree. FTPing or Kermiting for a long time still beats not being able to read the CD *at all*, which is what would happen for a lot of us if that CD wasn't in ISO9960 format. Currently, I could manage to wangle access to 3 CD-ROM drives to read a CD on. One's on a DECStation running Ultrix, one's on a Mac IIsi running A/UX, and one's on a PC running MS-DOS. All of these will read ISO formatted CDs. *None* of these will read a UFS formatted disk, unless you manage to get the byte ordering and the partition tables right for Ultrix or A/UX (and it ain't possible to get them simultaneously right for *both* Ultrix or A/UX). An ISO9960 formatted CD-ROM would be nice; a Sun UFS formatted one would just be a small shiny $100 frisbee for all the good it'd do anyone here. >While the terrible fact of it being a DOS CDROM drive rather than a UNIX one, >which you already have or have access to if you have a Sun machine and can Yes, but lots of us *don't* have a Sun machine. I don't have one, and the University of Oklahoma ECN doesn't have one either. >load any recent software, is bad enough, the 8.3 file name restriction and >POSIX-noncompliant case-folding is doubly damning. Even without ISO9960 >restrictions to this effect, DOS would still impose them on you. Well, Adam Richter already suggested supplying the distribution in the form of a tar file stored on the ISO9960 CD-ROM. Second alternative: you familiar with the "Rock Ridge" extensions to ISO9960 that support full Unix-style filenames, while still retaining backwards compatibility with ISO9960? That'd be the way to go; I gather, from some info I read about the upcoming O'Reilly X11 CD-ROM release, that some outfit has already put together Rock Ridge/ISO9960 VFS modules for the major Unix variants like SunOS, Ultrix, etc. >CD-ROM software supported SCSI CD-ROM drives in the first place, and if you had >an ISO9960 FS for your 386BSD, and if it worked, you could use the CD-ROM drive I believe someone's already written a ISO9960 VFS module for 386BSD. Check your local alt.sources archive. >file system, or running "Terry's-marvelous-but-as-yet-unreleased-severely- >tortured-version-of-GNUmake", you can compile directly off the CD-ROM if it's >in a mountable format. Since 386BSD only supports one of the 3 approaches (That Admittedly, that would be nice. But if it's in Sun format, only Suns will be able to read it, let alone mount it. If it's in ISO9960 format, lots of people will be able to read it. If it's in ISO9960/Rock Ridge, a good many of those people will be able to mount it as well. -- Richard Todd rmtodd@chinet.chi.il.us or rmtodd@uokmax.ecn.uoknor.edu "Never re-invent the wheel unnecessarily; yours may have corners."-henry@utzoo