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.
