Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att!alberta!calgary!maloff
From: maloff@calgary.UUCP (Sheldon Maloff)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.tech
Subject: Re: Disk corrupt - task held
Keywords: guru to the maximum frustrastion
Message-ID: <1663@vaxb.calgary.UUCP>
Date: 9 Jun 88 06:48:19 GMT
References: <1657@vaxb.calgary.UUCP> <3932@cbmvax.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: U. of Calgary, Calgary, Ab.
Lines: 65

I've just moved this thread over to .tech rather than cross post, since
it seems technical enough.

In article <3932@cbmvax.UUCP>, steveb@cbmvax.UUCP (Steve Beats) writes:
> In article <1657@vaxb.calgary.UUCP> maloff@calgary.UUCP (Sheldon Maloff) writes:
> >I've had this happen to me a few times now, and I'm beginning to get annoyed.
> >
> >	Disk Corrupt - Task Held
> >	Finish ALL Disk Activity
> >	etc.
> >
> >I go straight into a guru of this form
> >
> >	8700000B.265F48F1
> >
> >So I look up in my handy Amiga-Guru book on what this means and I find
> >out we have a fatal error in the dos library, specifically key out of range.
> >
> 
> Yeah, I know!  This should really be considered an 'A' bug (one which should
> be fixed before release) but it hasn't been.  The current version of FFS has
> the same code, and will guru on you if a file or directory header contains a
> reference to a key outside the partition (or floppy) bounds.  I could go on
> for ages about how difficult it is to trap errors like that, and then exit
> gracefully.  Exactly what do you do when the data coming off disk are bad ?
>              ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> [excess deleted...]
> 
> 	Steve

How difficult could this be?  I mean specifically key out of range.  When
this happened to me almost always the disk window pops up and then I get the
requester.  If a key is out of range couldn't you simply ABORT whatever you
are doing.  For instance leave the window up, tell me that the key is
out of range, let me get rid of the requester, under the smart assumption
that the disk is bad and with a good enough error message I could
use a disk editor to fix it, or somehow salvage the disk.  (of course, provide
a salvager program as standard equipment (the Apollo's do)).  

Of course it may be more serious if this happens while a program is loading, 
but could the loading simply be stopped?  If possible, unload the code that 
was loaded and free up space, otherwise leave the memory allocated, and let 
*me* reboot when *I* choose too.

My problem is I consider a disk and file system sacred.  If there is an
error in the system every possible chance should be given to recovery
of the system sanity.  If the problem can be trapped, then catch it and 
deal with it.  Granted there is eventually somepoint where recovery
cannot be made, guru then and only then.  But don't simply say, "oopsy,
troubled waters, GURU!"

I'm somewhat curious (comes from being naive about the Amiga file system)
just what all the problems are.  Why don't we toss
some of them back and forth over the net and get the problem fixed right
for a future release?  Why don't we start with some of the problems of
key out of range?

Looking forward to a good discussion.
Sheldon.

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