Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!bacchus.pa.dec.com!granite.pa.dec.com!mellon From: mellon@fenris.pa.dec.com (Ted Lemon) Newsgroups: comp.unix.ultrix Subject: Re: Summary of responses to file allocation, plea for changes in Unix Message-ID: Date: 27 Jun 90 20:29:21 GMT References: <2390@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu> Sender: news@wrl.dec.com (News) Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation Lines: 31 In-Reply-To: karl-d@nisca.ircc.ohio-state.edu's message of 27 Jun 90 21:57:00 GMT Doug, It seems like what you really want is to add a new filesystem to the Unix kernel which supports the features you need. The Berkeley kernel has been nicely partitioned so that that sort of thing is possible, if not trivial, so if you wanted to, you (or some enterprising third party) could probably implement such a filesystem and sell it to people with Berkeley kernels. Another option would be to set up a custom NFS server that had its own filesystem code with the capability of preallocating files. I'm not sure that would give you the performance you need, but it's a possibility. I suspect, though, that any solution you attempt which requires that all the major manufacturers of Unix products to band together and agree to solve this problem will come to naught - we can't even all agree that Berkeley Unix is the only true Unix, even though that's as plain as the nose on my face, so how are we going to agree to add a feature like that? ;'} You can submit a product requirement to DEC stating that you need this feature in order to use our product, and it's possible that they might pay attention to your request, but I make no guarantees, particularly since I'm not even associated with the group that makes Ultrix... _MelloN_ (The above is, of course, personal opinion, and not a Digital Equipment Corporation policy statement.)