Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!sobeco!lamy
From: lamy@sobeco.com (Jean-Francois Lamy)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mips
Subject: loopback mounts.
Message-ID: <1990Sep26.013118.6212@sobeco.com>
Date: 26 Sep 90 01:31:18 GMT
Sender: lamy@sobeco.com (j.lamy)
Organization: Sobeco Group - Montreal, Canada
Lines: 19

Does Mips support or plan to support something like the SunOS lofs file system
type which allows "loopback" mounts -- where one mounts a directory on top of
a mount point (as opposed to a partition being mounted on top of a directory).

I've found this to be useful in at least two cases:

a) mounting a directory from a large partition as /tmp, instead of resorting
   to a /tmp symlink created at boot time that keeps getting in the way in
   single-user mode (ed does not take kindly to not having a real /tmp, as
   one might expect, and even core dumps to manifest its displeasure).  Yes
   we know about TMPDIR, but a lot of things don't obey it ("ar" under 4.30
   is reported not to, for instance, I haven't checked under 4.50).

b) Making a large archive available for FTP by mounting its directory under
   the chroot-ed ftp directory, especially when said archive cannot fit on the
   partition where ftp stuff lives.

Jean-Francois Lamy               lamy@sobeco.com, uunet!sobeco!lamy
Groupe Sobeco, 505 ouest, bd Rene-Levesque, Montreal Canada H2Z 1Y7