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From: shannon@sun.uucp (Bill Shannon)
Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards
Subject: Re: Location of partition table on disk
Message-ID: <8033@sun.uucp>
Date: Thu, 9-Oct-86 00:49:45 EDT
Article-I.D.: sun.8033
Posted: Thu Oct  9 00:49:45 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 10-Oct-86 00:52:41 EDT
References: <7473@sun.uucp> <15583@mordor.ARPA>, <1173@hoptoad.uucp> <7195@utzoo.UUCP>
Organization: Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Lines: 19

> I too thought it would be a good idea to have the partition table on
> the disk it partitioned, until I read a paper on the Cray-2 Unix port.
> They had the right idea:  the size and disk location of each partition
> is recorded in the /dev inode for it.  The kernel stashes the details
> in internal tables when such an inode is opened or mounted.  It seems
> to me that this is a cleaner solution all around.
> -- 
> 				Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
> 				{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry

Unless I misunderstand, this seems wrong.  The partitioning of a disk
is not related to some entries in some /dev directory somewhere, but
is related to the data on the disk.  The disk itself should contain
the partitioning information.  When the disk moves to another machine,
the partition information should move with it.  Also, where do you find
the partition information for the disk on which the filesystem containing
/dev resides?

					Bill Shannon