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From: Joe Greco <jgreco@brasil.moneng.mei.com>
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Subject: Re: Nightmare.
To: darrylo@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com (Darryl Okahata)
Date: Thu, 15 Aug 1996 09:04:43 -0500 (CDT)
Cc: jkh@time.cdrom.com, hackers@freefall.freebsd.org
In-Reply-To: <199608150659.AA203732347@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com> from "Darryl Okahata" at Aug 14, 96 11:59:06 pm
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> > a) Write a filesystem which understands tar files natively.  Note: there may
> >    be a slight performance penalty for folks running with their root
> >    partitions mounted on a TARFS - perhaps we could note this somewhere.
> 
>      While you're at it, how about tar-on-a-tape-FS?  There's an MSDOS
> driver that makes a tape drive look like a disk drive.  Why not have
> something similar for FreeBSD?  People can then use their tape drive as
> a disk.  Imagine having the root disk on tape!  "Infinite storage!"
> (1001 evil ;-})
> 
>      What about ZIPFS, or CPIOFS?  ZOOFS?  ARCFS?  LBRFS?  Punch-tape-FS
> is possible, but it wouldn't be politically correct -- too many trees
> would get cut down.  ;-}

How about UFS-on-a-tape :-)  Never forget the obvious ones.

# newfs /dev/rst0
/dev/rst0:    8257536 sectors in 2016 cylinders of 1 tracks, 4096 sectors
        4032.0MB in 126 cyl groups (16 c/g, 32.00MB/g, 7680 i/g)
super-block backups (for fsck -b #) at:
 32, 65568, 131104, 196640, 262176, 327712, 393248, 458784, 524320, 589856,
 655392, 720928, 786464, 852000, 917536, 983072, 1048608, 1114144, 1179680,
 1245216, 1310752, 1376288, 1441824, 1507360, 1572896, 1638432, 1703968,
 1769504, 1835040, 1900576, 1966112, 2031648, 2097184, 2162720, 2228256,
 2293792, 2359328, 2424864, 2490400, 2555936, 2621472, 2687008, 2752544,
 2818080, 2883616, 2949152, 3014688, 3080224, 3145760, 3211296, 3276832,
 3342368, 3407904, 3473440, 3538976, 3604512, 3670048, 3735584, 3801120,
 3866656, 3932192, 3997728, 4063264, 4128800, 4194336, 4259872, 4325408,
 4390944, 4456480, 4522016, 4587552, 4653088, 4718624, 4784160, 4849696,
 4915232, 4980768, 5046304, 5111840, 5177376, 5242912, 5308448, 5373984,
 5439520, 5505056, 5570592, 5636128, 5701664, 5767200, 5832736, 5898272,
 5963808, 6029344, 6094880, 6160416, 6225952, 6291488, 6357024, 6422560,
 6488096, 6553632, 6619168, 6684704, 6750240, 6815776, 6881312, 6946848,
 7012384, 7077920, 7143456, 7208992, 7274528, 7340064, 7405600, 7471136,
 7536672, 7602208, 7667744, 7733280, 7798816, 7864352, 7929888, 7995424,
 8060960, 8126496, 8192032,
# mount /dev/st0 /mnt
# cd /mnt
(whirrrr chug)
# (cd /usr; tar cvf - .) | tar xf -
(whirrrr chug whirrrr chug whirrr chug for several years)

... JG