Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2008 18:29:38 +0100 From: deeptech71@gmail.com To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Subject: Re: What's up with the symlinks in the 7.0-RC2 ISO images? Message-ID: <47BC6382.8010809@gmail.com>
next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Oliver Fromme wrote: > Why would you want to open a FreeBSD package on a Windows > machine? That doesn't make sense at all. The only files > that might be useful on Windows are the files on the docs > CD ISO image, and those can be opened without problems on > Windows. I've tried it. Giorgos Keramidas wrote: > Oliver Fromme wrote: >>> Well, someone might want to look at the "doc" CD on Windows >>> (e.g if he's offline and needs to loo at the docs before >>> installing FreeBSD). >> >> Or maybe someone might want to make a FreeBSD-7.0-RC2 DVD, >> and a FreeBSD installation is too far away... > > That's not a bug of the FreeBSD ISO image, then, but of the process used > to `convert' a perfectly working CD-ROM to a DVD. > The need for a DVD is not unrealistic, and I can certainly understand > *why* you may need it. The symlinks of the original CD-ROM are not > really a problem if you use a *real* OS to read the ISO image, and not > the jokes which Microsoft creates. If you use a FreeBSD system for the > `DVD-ROM staging area' with a filesystem not as limited as the usual > Windows filesystems, symlinks should be no problem at all. > >>> - All the ISO images -- including the doc one -- are built >>> with MS-Joliet extensions (in addition to RockRidge), so >>> long file names etc. work fine on Windows, too. >> >> Actually, long file names etc. work fine on Windows without the >> MS-Joliet extensions and with ISO level 2 or 3, but not on DOS though. >> If Windows-readability is a higher priority than DOS-readability >> (definitely!), then lose the symlinks. > Right. So we have to `cripple' the UNIX users' experience, just to be > able to please the Windows users. Why does this sound a bit odd? Well, I am not forcing the Release Engineering Team to stop using symlinks, but: On the package CDs or install&somepackages CD, hard links had no problems. Bootable only, and docs don't use links. A normal FreeBSD system practice dictates the requirement for symlinks to exist in the tree instead of hard links, but would anyone install FreeBSD (on a harddrive) by copying files from the live CD to the hard drive? PS1: I AM using FreeBSD to make the DVDs, the symlink thing at Windows just occured to me when trying to show someone what it means for an OS not to have unique inodes, thinking that the RC2 package CDs had hard links (Windows occupies space twice: once for All/*, and once for <any_but_"All">/*). At least it was POSSIBLE to make a DVD (without livefs) before with Windows (with hard links). PS2: Congrats to your new commit rights. :)
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?47BC6382.8010809>