Re: os9 and linux

Kenneth Albanowski (kjahds@kjahds.com)
Fri, 14 Jun 1996 01:49:14 -0400 (EDT)


On Thu, 13 Jun 1996, Alan Cox wrote:

> I'd agree there are things we can gain in these areas. I've also got an OS/9
> box although it doesnt exactly do a lot at the moment. More modularity and
> cleaner modules are what it offers.

>From what I got out of that description of OS/9, it has great similarities
to Plan 9 -- a flexible file system that can mean different things
depending on what modules are loaded. It _would_ be nice if Linux truly
supported this sort of stuff. /proc is a step in that direction, and so is
userfs, but it needs to be fully integrated with the kernel, and _fast_ to
be of use.

Once you have something like that, "transparent" mounting and such stuff
is a breeze. (And we really need transparent mounts along with the
rest...)

I remember Linus mentioning that he had been convinced that doing this
stuff completely at the user-level (assumedly via a libc shim) is superior
to kernel-level, but I never saw how you can make such a technique secure.

> Alan

--
Kenneth Albanowski (kjahds@kjahds.com, CIS: 70705,126)