Date: Wed, 12 Aug 1998 00:26:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Doug White <dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu> To: Brett Glass <brett@lariat.org> Cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: MSDOS extended partitions and "slices" Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.00.9808120024460.28795-100000@resnet.uoregon.edu> In-Reply-To: <199808102342.RAA10483@lariat.lariat.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Mon, 10 Aug 1998, Brett Glass wrote: > >It's a decent argument, but: > > > >1. There is a maximum of 8 partitions that can be defined this way (a-h). > > Why? Because it was programmed that way. > Even if, for some reason, there's a limitation in the UNIX file system > software that precludes more than 8, there should not be any problem > doing this for MS-DOS "extended partitions" within MSDOSFS. > >2. The B partition is only used for swap. > >3. Letters C and D are reserved for the slice partition and the > > whole-disk partition in BSD parlance, respectively. > >4. I bet I'd get people trying to disklabel an extended MSDOS partition. > > Those are the conventions for a UNIX partition. But why apply them to > other kinds? Because it would be inconsistent otherwise. > It's a good idea, methinks, to allow as much interoperability as > possible, and to make sure that the device letters reflect the actual > structure of whatever file system is being used. Otherwise, support > for other systems, such as NTFS, etc., could be hampered. I await your patches. Doug White | University of Oregon Internet: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu | Residence Networking Assistant http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite | Computer Science Major To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSF.4.00.9808120024460.28795-100000>