Re: Is there an alternative filesystem hierarchy that could be adapted to Debian.
On Wed 10 Mar 2021 at 15:35:07 (-0400), Cmdte Alpha Tigre Z wrote:
> > It is more than looks. In Unix filesystems disks/volumes/partitions are
> > "mounted" into the main file system at some arbitrary "mount point" and
> > thus the filesystem encompasses all mounted devices. With DOS, all
> > lettered disks are independent, though resources can be referenced
> > across disks, it's not seamless. Also, what happens when you get to
> > disk Z?
>
> Yes I saw that too. But I prefer not to further continue this debate to
> /dev or /mount.
Err, not so fast …
> I like to know at hand what file is on which disk. Aside from that,
> if I made Windows, I would make it go to AA after Z, looks like a little
> solution. Even though, it would not be bad to call them USB0: or HDD0:,
> just a bit more complex.
>
> > Why should we use filesystem specifications that are constrained by the
> > limitations of CP/M running on 8 bit processors?
>
> I never tried to say that we should use FAT or NTFS. I was just talking
> about names.
No. You're not. You're talking about the filesystem structure,
the hierarchy, not just names.
Changing the names themselves is trivial. The name /usr exists
in one place, and you could rename it by typing, say,
# mv /usr /UlSteR
The *filesystem* is still happy—the OS would crash only because
nothing else calls usr that. Simple to change.
But device letters are different.
Take the case where partition E: contains the users' home
directories for users foo and bar. Foo's video collection
in E:/foo/Videos/ eventually grows so large that it has to
be hived off onto a separate device, F: is assigned to it,
and all of Foo's videos are moved there.
Now, a file that Bar knew as E:/foo/Videos/cats.mp4, or
even ../foo/Videos/cats.mp4, has the new path F:/cats.mp4.
Here's how that works differently on unix filesystems:
Old scheme:
# mount /dev/sdc1 /home
~foo/Videos/cats.mp4 (or ../foo/Videos/cats.mp4).
New scheme:
# mount /dev/sdc1 /home
on which /home/foo/Videos/ has been copied to device /dev/sdd1,
and emptied.
# mount /dev/sdd1 /home/foo/Videos
Now the videos copied to /dev/sdd1 all appear in the same
location as they did before, and all the file paths stay
the same.
So by closing down debate on /dev and /mount, you show that
you've missed the essence of unix's unified filesystem by
not seeing beyond mere names.
Cheers,
David.
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