Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!bfmny0!tneff
From: tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.att
Subject: Re: SimulTask and huge D: file
Message-ID: <15758@bfmny0.BFM.COM>
Date: 16 Aug 90 00:52:54 GMT
References: <1990Aug14.181508.10655@cbnewsd.att.com> <15749@bfmny0.BFM.COM> <1990Aug16.153309.28653@cbnewsd.att.com>
Reply-To: tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff)
Distribution: usa
Lines: 27

In article <1990Aug16.153309.28653@cbnewsd.att.com> bamford@cbnewsd.att.com (harold.e.bamford) writes:
>In article <15749@bfmny0.BFM.COM> tneff@bfmny0.BFM.COM (Tom Neff) writes:
>>[procedure for garbage collecting a pseudo-volume fixed disk (PVFD) file]
>
>A wonderful procedure.  Doesn't work if you don't have enough space
>in /usr however.  I suspect that copying D: (via unconditional
>backup??) to floppy is the way to go...

There is nothing special about the /usr file system as far as VP/ix (aka
Simul-Task) is concerned.  If there is enough free space on /usr2 or any
other mounted file system, the new D: file can be placed there, and mv'd
back to the original location after compacting.

If there is insufficient free space anywhere on any UNIX filesystem,
then indeed the procedure can be done by running BACKUP from the old D:
to a stack of floppies, then rm'ing the old D:, creating a new one by
cp'ing 'cdisk', and RESTORE'ing from the floppies to the new D:
pseudo-volume.  Only be careful to verify the floppies before rm'ing the
old PVFD file!

In general I recommend against letting a PVFD file get bigger than the
amount of free space on its file system.  Use the UNIX file system
instead if you can get away with it, or a real DOS partition if sector
level stuff is involved.
-- 
Psychoanalysis is the mental illness   \\\    Tom Neff
it purports to cure. -- Karl Kraus      \\\   tneff@bfmn0.BFM.COM