Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rice!sun-spots-request
From: dupuy@cs.columbia.edu
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun
Subject: Re: 4.0 format vs. stand/diag
Keywords: SunOS
Message-ID: <5309@brazos.Rice.edu>
Date: 26 Feb 90 21:00:20 GMT
Sender: root@rice.edu
Organization: Sun-Spots
Lines: 15
Approved: Sun-Spots@rice.edu
X-Refs:  Original: v9n47, Replies: v9n53
X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 9, Issue 53, message 9

With all this format-bashing I feel I have to say something in its
defense.  While it may be inconvenient to load MUNIX just to run format, I
almost never do this myself.  It's much easier to boot a machine diskless,
with a GENERIC kernel, and run format from that, with all the conveniences
of Unix for saving and loading defect lists, etc.  It's also very nice not
to have to run single-user (i.e. unavailable) overnight when formatting a
disk and running surface analysis.

It would be nice if format were a bit more robust, and for those poor
folks without servers to boot from, it might be convenient to combine the
MUNIX and miniroot stages, so that suninstall could be run from MUNIX, or
at least add dump and restore to the set of MUNIX utilities.

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