11 Jun
1998
11 Jun
'98
8:53 a.m.
In general, file systems seem to fit into several simple categories.
Let's say UNIX-like, DOS-like, simple (just data), and that's about it
I've looked at Apple manuals, and the Apple ][ format is kinda like
DOS in terms of having an array of blocks and stuff. Except Apple's
is quite a bit more elegant. Since some people here are fond of
praising the VAX, how does its file system work (typically)?
That used to be one of my interview questions for Unix programmers:
your
buggy program just created a filename with {control
characters, leading
dash (-), leading slash (/), '*', etc} in it. How do you delete it?
Does anybody collect file systems? That would be semi-useful for
somebody
doing data recovery. I have no idea what the Newton
"soup", for
example,
looks like. One of my favorites was the Regulus
(unix-like)
filesystem.
It maintained a bitmap of free blocks and could easily
allocate a
best-fit
contiguous region for your file (I think they had an
option to creat()
for
contiguity). This made file access *fast* when you
needed it. I still
find fragmentation a nightmare even on Linux.
-- Doug
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com