Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!sdd.hp.com!decwrl!mips!sgi!shinobu!odin!sgihub!sgitokyo!kandall From: kandall@sgitokyo.nsg.sgi.com (Michael Kandall) Newsgroups: comp.unix.internals Subject: Re: Ideas for changes to Unix filesystem Message-ID: <1991Feb7.064348.1873@sgitokyo.nsg.sgi.com> Date: 7 Feb 91 06:43:48 GMT References: <414@appserv.Eng.Sun.COM> Organization: Nihon Silicon Graphics, Japan Lines: 24 In article igb@fulcrum.bt.co.uk (Ian G Batten) writes: >In article bzs@world.std.com (Barry Shein) writes: >> Think of fixed length record files and inserting into them, it would >> be nice to be able to just copy/munge the block numbers rather than >> the data. > >What's needed is a version of streams for filesystems. With Multics, >the One True Operating System, you could attach modules (== push >modules) such as vfile_ to provide additional functionality over and >above that which you got from initiate_segment_ and its friends. What >would be nice with Unix would be ISAM, record mode, whatever modules you >could push on top of the mmap interface. Once you can map files into >your address space most things can be done on top of that. > >ian I believe SVR4 has this. In SVR4's enhanced STREAMS, I believe you can push STREAMS onto arbitrary file descriptors. -- ---- Michael Kandall Independent Consultant Nihon Silicon Graphics